Hindsight's 2020
by Tea Leaf
Summary: AU, High School, the bane of the teenage existence. Toss in the gangs, the rivalries, the cliques, the existential angst and one twisted plot for revenge and no one will escape unscathed. Too bad no one saw that until it was too late.
1. The First Day of the Best Days

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me and I am making no money off of this story. This is for entertainment purposes only so please don't sue me, I'm poor.

A/N: Firstly, I'd just like to thank everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter of "The Butterfly" I'm glad you all enjoyed the story and if you're reading this, I'm especially glad that you are reading my new fic

So, this is an Alternate Universe story so I've taken a few liberties with characters and situations but I will try to explain them so please bear with me.

Also, I'm really sorry to those who read and reviewed this first chapter before I pulled it. I wasn't satisfied with it and there was a lot of stuff that I had wanted to add that I hadn't. So this is the new and improved version of the chapter with almost 10 pages worth of extra content. Every scene has been modified, some were changed completely. I think its much, much better now and I think that the characters a clearer now and there's less semblance between how I portray the characters in this story and how I portrayed them in the Butterfly.

To Mr. Pointy from Mediaminer, I'm sorry for the slowness in updates, my computer has been malfunctioning so my writing time has been halved and a lot has been happening in real life so I haven't been able to write. However, this re-write is now complete and I think the second chapter should be up in 3 or 4 days. The chapters are a lot longer and a lot more detailed so they're taking me a while longer to write.

Umm…yeah, that's about all the notes I have for this chapter so far. Oh, for those on FF.net, I'm sorry but the stupid thing won't save my breaks in the sotry so if it seems to jump from one scene to another it's because the break is missing and I'm sorry.

I hope you all enjoy it, I look forward to your reactions so please review And I apologize again for the false start from a few weeks ago and I would just like to remind you all that I post some previews and deleted scenes in my livejournal which is at livejournal .com /users /anotherstraycat

Hindsight's 20/20: Chapter 1

By: Tea Leaf / Banana Soap

A growl came from beneath the yellow covers as a sudden blaring noise shrieked through the room. The pillow was pulled tightly over his head in an effort to drown out the intrusion but the noise simply got louder and louder. Finally a large tanned hand with dirty fingernails and several scrapes and scars across the knuckles reached out and smashed the alarm clock beside the bed, putting a definite end to the noise. He sighed in contentment and snuggled back into his lumpy mattress, fully intent on going back to sleep.

His electric blue eyes shot open and a slight twitch developed under the left one as another shrill sound blared from the other side of the room. He grit his teeth and pulled the pillow tighter over his ears but still the noise persisted. Finally, with another growl, his strong arm whipped the pillow across the room, knocking over the second alarm clock.

The noise was slightly muted now, suffocated by the pillow, but it still insisted on screeching the time. He had to get up now.

He looked over at the slightly more damaged alarm clock beside his bed and made out the numbers 7:43 before cursing mildly under his breath.

He heaved his large body onto his hands and attempted to push himself out of bed only to get his legs tangled in the sheets and toppled to the floor.

He let out an "oof" as his back made contact with the cold wood and he lay there a second to recuperate.

Finally with a resigned sigh, he detangled his legs from his faded yellow sheets and once again pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled across the room in his threadbare boxers and shut off the alarm clock then leaned heavily on the wall as he made his way to the bathroom.

He stopped at the sink and took a good look at his messy blonde hair that seemed to be sticking out in every direction, as it always seemed to. His eyes were slightly blood-shot and had slight dark circles under them, four hours was definitely not enough sleep for him to function properly. He grimaced at the large bruise on his jaw; things hadn't gone smoothly last night. He sighed and hung his head lightly. This was definitely not how he'd pictured looking for the first day back at school.

He pushed away from the sink and stripped off his shorts before stepping into the shower and turning on the water. He yelped slightly at the cold but at least now he was wide-awake.

Slowly the water heated and he smiled a little goofily in pleasure as the heat helped soothe the soreness of his muscles.

Last night had been worse than expected. He'd wanted to do a quick clean job, get in and out and home by midnight.

Not so lucky.

He'd had the car boosted and in storage on time but it had been a little harder than expected to break through the locks. He'd scratched the paint by accident while he'd been forcing the door open.

The boss had been unimpressed and the various bruises that now coated his skin had been the result.

He scrubbed his hair and skin vigorously, ignoring the stiffness in his muscles, then turned off the water, stepping out of the shower stall and towel dried his skin and hair.

At least today was the first day of school though and that thought consoled him as he pulled on some jean shorts that had been cut off bellow his knees and a loose orange tee-shirt with a blue swirl con the front.

Not that he liked school itself, the actual class part sucked. But he liked the people there, and if nothing else, Uzumaki Naruto was a people person.

She looked up at the clear September sky as the sun rose and heated the air. It still felt like summer, but the laziness to the day made it clear that the season was drawing to a close.

She walked slowly, the collar of her long red trench coat pulled up, partially hiding her face.

She was reluctant to go back but she knew better than anyone that it was the best thing for her to do. She'd never get out of this hellhole without her high school diploma.

This hellhole was like every other, full of dark alleys, fences and graffiti as far as the eye could see. It was a perfectly clichéd concrete jungle.

The streets were mostly empty at this time of the day, the only inhabitants usually being the drunks who hadn't made it home last night, the drunks who had no homes to make it back to and the stray cats and dogs that were scrounging for something to eat.

The air was stale and laced with the lingering scents of garbage, sweat, urine and blood. The sidewalks were filthy, everything was filthy, and she couldn't remember ever seeing anything clean for as long as she'd lived here. Even the laundry stretched out on lines between the well-fare housing complexes looked dirty.

She continued down the cracked pavement, keeping to the thin space between the junkies and drunks that lounged the crumbling walls of the buildings and the putrid alleys and the mad drivers that always drove practically on the sidewalk to avoid the potholes in the middle of the road and would take out anything that dared stand in their way.

She kept her head low so as to not meet anyone's eyes but kept her gaze high enough to spot trouble in time to dodge it.

Not that she really had to worry though, people took one look at her long red leather trench coat with the infamous white circle on the back and ran in the other direction. She was a person that was not to be messed with. She had strong protection.

She eventually came to a chain link fence that lined a filthy park and slipped through a rip in the links that had been widened into almost a door after so many years of frequent use.

She walked along the basketball court, heading towards the four-story, graffiti covered, slowly crumbling brick building that found itself on the other end of the track field of the park.

She walked over the dead, scarred grass, still taking her time. She was early, as usual. She didn't have anything better to do in the morning, not even sleep in. She didn't sleep well.

Her eyes were still low, her shoulders were hunched, and her feet in their threadbare sneakers dragged in the dirt. Maybe she'd walk a few laps around the track before going into the school.

"Look who decided to show up after all." Came a slightly higher-pitched voice that had a definite sneer to it.

She sighed and closed her eyes briefly before turning to the girl who stood opposite her on the track.

"Ino, it's too early for this." She muttered as she raised her green eyes to her rival.

The blonde girl glared her ice blue eyes and sneered her painted red lips.

"It's never too early for you to get your ass handed to you. I thought I warned you last year to never come back here." She continued.

Haruno rolled her eyes.

"I would first like to point out that you have never been able to "hand my ass to me" as you so eloquently put it and I thought I told you last year that you could go hang yourself if you didn't want to see my face again." She responded as she adjusted the white bandana over her chin length pink hair.

"You think you're so much better than everyone else don't you Haruno? All because of that fucking coat of yours! Well fuck you. If anything you're worse, at least I don't have to whore myself out just to survive." The blonde snapped superiorly as she crossed her arms under her ample chest.

"No, you do it for fun." Haruno responded apathetically.

Ino glowered and growled as her hand reached into the pouch at the small of her back and pulled out a long sharp blade before charging the other girl.

Haruno slipped off her red coat and tossed it to the side before jumping aside to dodge Ino's lunge. Ino recovered quickly and lunged again. Haruno caught the hand with the kunai and pulled as she landed on her back and raised her right leg, applying pressure to the blonde girl's bared mid-drift, and sent Ino flying over her head and to the other side of the field.

Haruno flipped easily back to her feet and turned to look at Ino who was on her hands and knees in the dust trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her when she'd landed.

Haruno dusted off her old, lacerated jeans and adjusted the ripped mesh shirt she wore before picking up her trench coat and pulling it back on.

Ino looked up and glared at the white O on the back of it.

"Really Ino, you have no skill." Haruno told her frankly as she turned and met the other girl's blue eyes.

Ino growled and rose shakily to her feet, her breathing still very painful.

Haruno rolled her eyes.

"You know very well that if you come near me again you won't be able to get back up." She told her, her voice cold and serious.

Ino hesitated in apprehension.

A bell rang loudly from the school.

"Fuck. And now you've made me late." Haruno muttered angrily as she shot a glare at Ino before continuing her walk towards the school. This was exactly what she'd wanted to avoid.

Hatake Kakashi watched the class dispassionately with his one good eye. Already the students (mainly the boys) were arguing and fighting with each other as others (mainly the girls) were squealing and making other inhuman high-pitched noises of fake ecstasy as "best friends" and cliques rejoiced at their reunion.

He hated the first day of class. Actually, he hated every day of class but the first in particular.

He sighed as he rested his covered chin in his hand while he sat at his desk and watched the students pile into the desks and send notes and paper airplanes sailing over the noise. His first class, English Lit 12. A bunch of hormone crazed 17-year-old kids all firmly entrenched in their high school cliques and personas. All beyond originality of any kind. His lip curled behind the upraised neck of his turtleneck shirt.

The second bell rang and he stood up to close the door just as an almost 6-feet blonde built like a football player skidded through the door.

"Right on time! Hey Hatake-sensei!" he said brightly. Kakashi nodded to Naruto slightly and closed the door as Naruto collapsed comfortably into a desk near the front.

The tall, gray haired man walked back to the blackboard and wrote down the class code and his name before setting down the chalk, adjusting the unfolded turtleneck and headband that obscured his face and took a fortifying breath. He turned and faced the class and frowned slightly.

They were ignoring him.

"Hey! Listen up!" he stated, his voice drowned out.

His eye narrowed.

"Hey! The bell rang, that means shut up and sit down!" he yelled into the noise.

The students finally noticed him and slunk disgruntledly into their seats, the noise that had been deafening dying down to a slight murmur.

"Good. For the rest of the year I expect you to do this every time you're in my class and hear that second bell. Now, what are you going to do next class after the second bell?" he asked them sarcastically.

No one answered, a few glared.

"You're going to sit down and shut up. Now answer, what are you going to do next class after the second bell?" he asked again, a little sharper.

"Sit down and shut up…" came a few muttered replies.

"Repeat it."

"Sit down and shut up." Said everyone.

"Good, if you do that, this should go smoothly enough." He muttered before moving to the front of his desk and leaning against it.

"Now, this class is—" he was cut off by a knock at the door.

His eyes narrowed momentarily as he let out a slightly frustrated breath (he hated to be interrupted) and walked to the door, blinking slightly when he saw the principal standing there.

"Ah, Kakashi-san. So sorry to interrupt." The old man said congenially.

"Not a problem Sandaime." Kakashi said easily.

"I have a new student to introduce, if I may." The principal continued.

"By all means…" Kakashi said in the same laid-back tone and he opened the door wider and moved, waving the principal through the door.

A tall youth with spiky black hair fallowed him through. Kakashi sighed inaudibly as he took in the sunglasses, leather and chains the kid was sporting. Just what he needed, another troublemaker. He leaned against the wall by the open door as Sandaime moved to the center of the class and the kid stood beside him.

"Good morning students, glad to see so many of you back again with us this year." Sandaime said genuinely as he cast a fond smile around the students in the room, and nodded slightly to Naruto who grinned at him.

"I have a new student to introduce to you all today. This is Uchiha Sasuke." The principal continued waving his hand slightly to indicate the tall young man beside him.

The kid didn't react, he simply kept his stone-like expression and Kakashi was certain that he was scanning each person from behind his dark sunglasses.

Sasuke disconnected as the principal continued with his brief introduction. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the several calculating looks he received after the principal mentioned that he was a transfer student from a very high-class academy. He hated it here already. Mind you, he hated it everywhere.

Haruno stood just outside the doorway, waiting for Sandaime to finish his speech and studying the new arrival. He had a black leather jacket with a wide collar and an off center zipper that was covered with studs and chains and had a red and white fan airbrushed on the back. His coat was closed so she couldn't see his shirt. His pants were black leather as well with several small chains laced through the belt loops, and black steel toed leather boots on his feet. Leather and chains everywhere, she mused that he would be a metal detector's worst nightmare. The clothing screamed cash. Her eyes narrowed slightly. What was a rich kid doing at this school?

"So, seeing as he's completely new to the school and neighborhood, I was hoping some of you might be kind enough to show him around."

Immediately all the female hands shot into the air and several high pitched voices started pleading with the principal. Sasuke inwardly grimaced at the idea of being chained to one of these twits.

"I can show you around." Came a more lower pitched but still female voice from the door, addressing him directly.

Every other voice in the room suddenly went quiet.

He turned and looked her up and down, taking in her red trench coat, her torn and worn jeans and mesh shirt, the hard muscles revealed on her stomach, her set jaw, her hard eyes.

Perfect.

"Ah, Haruno-chan, thank you for volunteering." Sandaime said, smiling at her.

"It will be my pleasure sir." She responded, smiling politely at the principal while keeping skeptical eyes on the new student.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, I'll leave you all to your class." Sandaime said with a nod before taking his leave of the room.

Kakashi nodded to him as he passed and motioned for Sasuke to take a seat before turning onto his newest arrival.

"So nice of you to join us Sakura-chan. Next time, see that you do it on time." He said, deceptively nonchalant as he walked back towards his desk and froze as a kunai sunk into the wood where his thigh would have been when if he'd sat on it. He pulled it out of the wood and turned to the pink haired girl who was glaring murderously at him.

"Don't call me that." She hissed through gritted teeth.

Kakashi threw the kunai back at her, imbedding it into her desk in the front row.

"Weapons are not permitted in class." He responded easily before turning back to the class at large.

Sasuke blinked in surprise at the exchange. Normally, someone would be expelled and maybe even arrested for a stunt like that.

"Now, as I was saying earlier, this class is a mandatory one. The school boards force you to be here, I know this and so I won't hold it against you if you don't like it. I understand that you don't have a choice. However, that does not mean that I will allow you to slip through it without doing any work." He continued sternly.

"This class is mandatory for a reason and that's because you will theoretically be honing skills that will be invaluable to you in the future. So, that means I expect you to do any and every assignment I give out and I expect you to do it well." He said, his eye slowly scanning the room, making sure everyone understood.

He paused on the new kid and his eye narrowed slightly.

"Uchiha, right? Lose the sunglasses." He said.

Sasuke arched a dark eyebrow.

"Then you take off the headband and make everyone wearing regular glasses take them off too." Haruno spoke up.

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said, still deceptively calm as he turned his gaze to the pink haired girl who'd been carving the desk with her kunai and was now leaning back in her chair with her foot on the desk, her arms crossed and a mutinous look in her hard eyes.

"You heard me. There is nothing in the school dress code that forbids sunglasses. If you are going to discriminate against them, then you must discriminate against all things that cover eyes, such as regular glasses and that headband of yours." Haruno stated with an undertone of general contempt.

Kakashi looked at her for a long moment, he'd really hoped she wouldn't be in his class this year. She was always picking fights with him.

"No, I do not. As you said, it is not a breach of dress code it is in breach of my personal rules for my classroom, Sakura-chan. And my rule is against sunglasses only." He told her, ignoring the rage that flared in her eyes and turned back to Sasuke.

"Take off your sunglasses." He repeated.

"He can't make you." The girl told him.

Sasuke debated for a moment, he could probably argue this and win but that would draw a large amount of attention that he didn't want and would probably smack him with detention.

He removed the sunglasses and slipped them into an inner pocket of his black leather jacket, ignoring the venomous look he received from the pink haired girl.

Class moved on and Kakashi proceeded to outline the independent study he expected them to do as well as every other assignment they'd be given and went over the reading list.

Finally the hour and a half was over and the bell rang.

Haruno stabbed the kunai back into the desk, stood and left. Naruto hurried after her and Sasuke glared and did the same. She was supposed to show him around.

Kakashi sighed in relief as the students poured out of the room. One down, 2 to go. HE spotted the kunai still in Sakura's desk and walked over to pull it out but glared when he saw where she had stabbed it. All class she'd been carving and elaborate execution for him and had finished it off with the kunai stabbed where his hidden eye was.

"Ne, ne, Haruno-chan! You know, you really shouldn't screw around with Hatake-sensei like that, you'll get detention or worse." Naruto told the pink haired girl as he walked beside her towards her locked.

She tsked. "You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I give a flying fuck about what that bastard will try to do to me." She responded in her vaguely disconnected voice.

Sasuke paused as he watched the throng of students part like the red sea in front of her before continuing to follow her.

Naruto shrugged, he could argue that he was pretty sure she did because otherwise she wouldn't let the teacher get to her like he did but…arguing with Haruno was never a smart thing to do.

"How was your summer?" he asked instead.

"It was fine." Haruno muttered as she reached her locker and wrenched it open.

She tuned Naruto out and rummaged through her locker as he proceeded to tell her in ultimate detail the events of his two months of vacation only to jump back as Naruto suddenly crashed violently into her locker.

"Fuck, watch where the hell you're going asshole!" the blonde snarled as he turned on his assailant. Haruno placed a restraining hand on his shoulder and held his eyes for a second, now was not the time to start a brawl. Naruto took a deep breath, fire still blazing in his electric blue eyes, muscles still tense, body still crouched and ready to attack but he remained still.

Haruno slowly turned, her hard sea foam green eyes locking with the trademark pale silver eyes of the Hyuuga clan. Her lips thinned as she pressed them together to keep them from curling in contempt as she took in his Gap slacks and button down shirt and his perfectly groomed long brown hair that was kept out of his eyes with a black headband that covered his forehead.

"Stop blocking the hall." Said the calm voice of Hyuuga Neji as he stared at the blonde with cold eyes and an even colder smirk.

Naruto growled but remained still.

"H-hi Haruno-san!" came an excited voice beside her and Haruno resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Rock Lee.

"He wasn't blocking the hall asshole, it's you and your damn crew who are doing that." Haruno snapped at Neji as she gently shoved Lee out of her personal space and shared her glare with Neji's large entourage of "cool" seniors.

"I don't believe this has anything to do with you Haruno-san so I'd stay out of it if I where you." Neji said icily as he drew up to his full height in an unconscious effort to intimidate her through physical stature.

"Well it's a good thing you're not me, this school couldn't afford to have two immature bullies with pathetic superiority complexes." Haruno returned smoothly as she let her shoulders slope back lazily and a small superior smirk to curve her lips.

Sasuke watched the exchange intently, keeping on the fringe of it with the growing crowd. From the other spectators' excitement, he was convinced that this was a common and usually highly entertaining confrontation.

Neji's pale eyes narrowed as his jaw locked.

"I'm only going to tell you this one more time, stay out of it. This is between men…Sakura-chan." He said condescendingly as he leaned in towards her.

His mistake was lowering himself to her face level.

Her stance tensed and her right fist flew out faster than anyone had anticipated. Her knuckles connected hard with his cheek, sending him flying into the row of lockers on the other side of the hall with a large crash.

"Between men? What kind of a man picks on people for sport? What kind of a man is too ill-bred to simply ask politely for someone to move? What kind of a man resorts to violence at any opportunity?" She said, fake sugar coating her anger as she stepped menacingly forward finally allowing her lips to twist in disgust.

"You're really one to talk you classless street hooker. You can never hope to be half the man Neji is." Tenten, who had so far remained silent, snapped at her before rushing to Neji's side, a handkerchief in her hand as she dabbed at the blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Well as Neji so kindly pointed out, I am not a man so whether or not I'll ever measure up is irrelevant." Haruno stated coldly, her hard green eyes holding Neji's glowering ones.

"Hey, break it up!" said a voice as it pushed its way through the large crown surrounding Haruno, Neji, Tenten, Lee and Naruto.

"What's going on here?" the teacher said as he finally broke through the mob, quickly assessing the scene by taking in the damaged lockers and the blood from Neji's split lip.

Haruno squared her shoulders.

"Nothing Iruka-sensei. Unfortunately the hallway had been too crowded and few people got pushed around." She said as she smiled sweetly at the teacher.

He looked at her suspiciously then looked at Neji and Tenten who said nothing. He turned to Lee who looked away. He turned to Naruto, who was still half crouched and ready to jump at any second, and frowned at him.

The blonde shook his head slightly and stood, moving into a lazy slouch.

"Really sensei, just a misunderstanding." he assured the teacher.

Iruka sighed in resignation and thanked whatever mad gods were looking over them when the bell rang just then.

"Alright everyone, nothing to see here. Get to class." He said, dispelling the throng of students that had been hoping for the first big fight of the year.

"I hope you all are more careful next time you're in a crowd." Iruka told Haruno and Neji sternly, giving them a look that told them clearly that he knew they were lying, before heading to his own classroom.

Neji cast one last glare at Haruno then left for his next class with Tenten and Lee.

Haruno turned back to her locker and kicked out the dent Naruto had caused before slamming it shut.

"Fucking Neji, thinks he's king of the school." Naruto complained as he waited for Haruno to collect herself.

"I hate fuckers who think it's their god-given right to push people around." Haruno responded with a sneer before turning to him.

"What's your next class?" she asked easily, her apathetic mask firmly back in place.

Naruto pulled out his schedule.

"Uhhh…oh hell no." He said as he stared at the course code.

"Let me see." She said as she grabbed the paper.

"Ugh, Gym with Gai-sensei." She shuddered.

"You?" Naruto asked her as she pulled out her schedule.

"You have got to be kidding me…" she muttered to herself.

"Gym with fucking Gai-sensei." She told him in an ironic tone.

"How convenient, that's my next class also." Sasuke spoke up for the first time, bringing his presence to their attention.

The pair looked at him with raised eyebrows and blinked momentarily, they hadn't noticed him standing there.

The second bell rang.

"Shit!" Haruno and Naruto cursed together.

"Come on!"

Haruno grabbed onto Sasuke's arm and the three took off through the halls towards the gym.

Gai's gym class, though not a mandatory credit, was a very popular choice. In a neighborhood like this one, being in top physical shape and having a strong base in self-defense, combat and sport skills that could be used in a fight, were essential to survival and as such, the class was packed. The students were in their gym clothes and sitting on the benches that lined one of the gym walls as they listened to their eccentric teacher talk about the key elements of a good fighter.

Neji rolled his eyes and tuned the teacher out, as did many of the other students in the room. In all honesty, Lee was probably the only one who was really into the teacher's speech and complementing theatrics.

"Ah, more healthy, youthful students just in time to volunteer to help in my demonstration!" Gai boomed out while striking a pose as the three late students flew through the gym doors.

Haruno and Naruto sweat dropped. Sasuke frowned; there was something weird about this teacher. Maybe it was the energy, maybe it was the posing, but he was pretty sure that it was the green jump suit with its orange leg warmers and red bandana belt.

"No gym clothing?!" Gai continued in a scandalized tone as he inspected the three. Haruno and Naruto's torn jeans and worn tops and Sasuke's leather were definitely not appropriate for Gai's gym class.

The rest of the class snickered from the benches where they were waiting for class to start up again; they all knew what would come next.

"Never fear!" The teacher answered himself dramatically before pulling out three green spandex body suits out of somewhere (the three late students really preferred not to know) and tossing them at them.

"It is the ultimate stream-lined, form-fitting, easily-accessible, perfectly-made bodysuit! It's my beloved piece of gym-wear must-have!!" He said with a flourish and another pose.

The trio caught the suits easily and shuddered convulsively at the image of their teacher. Yes, Sasuke was now quite sure he wasn't going to like this class. He already didn't like this class.

"Now, to the change-rooms, chop chop!" Gai-sensei continued while making a chopping motion with his hands.

The three groaned and did as they were told, emerging a few minutes later with scowls and green bodysuits. Several students catcalled at them, Ino's voice standing out shrilly as she made comments about Haruno having a flat chest. Many of the girl's were drooling openly over Sasuke; Hinata flushed brightly as she discreetly admired Naruto.

"Excellent!" Gai cheered at the sight of them, his booming voice drowning out the students. "Now for the demonstration!" he continued with typical energy as he waved Haruno, Naruto and Sasuke over to stand with him, facing the rest of the class that was still seated on the benches that lined the walls.

"Now, as we were discussing while our models were preparing themselves, there are three key elements to a strong fighter that we are going to work on this year." Gai began.

"First is balance!" He exploded, breaking out the flashcard with the word written in large sparkly letters.

The class oo-ed appropriately though Lee was the only one who was sincere.

"Haruno, if you would be so kind as to demonstrate…Balance!" Gai said with more waving of the flashcard and a pose for good measure before tossing a large red ball at her.

Haruno frowned at the ball in confusion. She turned her confused eyes to Gai but he was only looking at her expectantly. She sighed, apparently she should know what he wanted her to do with the ball.

She looked back at the ball. Gai wanted her to demonstrate balance…

Her expression smoothed as she figured out something to do.

She walked over to the ball and placed one foot on it then rolled it forward as she stepped on the ball, bringing her other foot onto the ball as well. She steadied the ball and stayed standing on it.

"Yes, that's a good demonstration of balance." Gai said not nearly as extravagantly as earlier.

Haruno frowned slightly; this wasn't good enough. So she made it better and began to walk.

The ball rolled steadily under her feet as she moved around the room with the ease of someone walking on flat ground.

"Very good Haruno!" Gai said brightly, sending her a thumbs up.

She smirked slightly and brought the ball back to Gai's side before stepping off and taking a seat beside Chouji and Shikamaru near the gym door.

"Great balance!" Shikamaru told her sarcastically as he mimicked Gai's thumbs up.

"Bite me." She muttered back with a slight smirk before turning to see what weird task Gai-sensei had in store for Naruto and the new kid.

"The second key element to being a strong fighter is POWER!!" Gai said with his exaggerated enthusiasm as he waved his new flashcard.

"Naruto! Please demonstrate POWER!!" he continued, turning to the stocky blonde.

Naruto frowned deeply in confusion at his insane sensei.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" he asked, genuinely perplexed.

Gai blinked at him. "Easily, show off your power." Gai responded, seeming to think it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Naruto frowned even deeper and opened his mouth to question some more.

"Just gather some chakra and make it explode and be showy or something. That should satisfy the lunatic." Sasuke muttered to him quietly so that their teacher wouldn't hear. He really wanted to get this all over and done with as soon as possible.

"Oh…that kind of power. OK!" Naruto said, determination brightening his eyes and a smirk spreading across his face as he took a few steps forward.

Hinata sat up slightly, biting her lip as excitement sparked in her pearl-like eyes. Haruno spotted her and a small smile twitched at the corner of her lips.

Naruto closed his eyes and braced his legs, his hands curling into fists and held at his hips. He took a deep breath and concentrated on the energy coursing through the chakra coils of his body.

Neji muttered a quiet "Byakugan" as he watched the blue chakra flow through Naruto's inner coils. Was this really the best the maggot could do?

Naruto kept his eyes closed as he probed deeper within his spirit for his power; slowly it was heating up as it flowed through his body.

Neji frowned slightly as the blue turned to purple and slowly turned to red and exploded.

A sudden huge wave of chakra burst from Naruto, seeming to consume him it its crimson flames.

Sakura smirked with pride; she'd helped him master that. Sasuke blinked in surprise, he hadn't expected this kind of incredible strength from this live wire.

"Excellent! That, my wonderful students is POWER!!" Gai exclaimed excitedly while waving his flashcard.

Naruto grinned his trademark foxy grin (Hinata's blush deepened) and went to take the vacant seat next to Haruno, Chouji and Shikamaru.

"Good control." Haruno told him as he sat down. Naruto beamed, that was high praise from Haruno.

"Now class, the third element to being a strong fighter…SKILL!!!!" Gai exploded as he waved his last flashcard, the largest and brightest of them all.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Now…you, I'm sorry, I don't know you. Your name?" Gai asked Sasuke in an aside.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke drawled easily in his deep voiced, boredom clear in his tone.

"Right. Now, Sasuke will demonstrate SKILL!!!" Gai declared brightly to the class, ignoring Sasuke's tone and still waving his flashcard.

Sasuke took a few steps forward before turning so that his side faced the class and his back was to Gai. He performed a short sequence of quick hand seals before taking a deep breath and blowing through a hooked finger in his hand, causing a large flame to shoot out on his breath and gathered into a large ball before burning itself out, leaving slight scorch marks on the ground.

Neji's eyes narrowed and a slow smile spread across his lips. This kid was interesting.

Haruno's eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips together. This kid was dangerous; she'd have to keep an eye on him.

Ino's eyes narrowed as a predatory smile crept along her painted lips. This kid was hers.

Gai's eyes blinked rapidly. He'd been expecting a taijutsu demonstration.

"Ah…Excellent! Excellent demonstration of ninjutsu SKILL!!!" Gai said, recovering his usual exuberant personality and waving the flashcard again.

The class clapped, they were impressed.

Sasuke smirked; this was good. He'd established himself. He looked over to where Haruno was sitting and frowned slightly at her narrowed eyes and when he noticed there were no more free seats there. He scanned the benches. The only free seat was beside a very busty blonde in very revealing gym clothes with a very worrisome look on her face. He groaned inwardly before taking the seat.

"Impressive Sasuke-kun." She said sweetly. "You're new right? I'm Yamanaka Ino." She continued, leaning closer to him. He looked straight ahead, ignoring her and her blatant cleavage.

And so class continued with many poses, loud noises, streamers, sparkles and many were sure there was a smoke machine and a bubble machine stashed somewhere in the gym. On the upside though, at least it was entertaining in a strange and disturbing way. Gai rambled on about balance, power and skill and had the whole class do a few exercises together and dropped quite a few not so subtle hints about a great project he'd divined that would be revealed next class until finally, the bell rang and the students were all released for lunch.

Everyone headed to the change rooms quickly (especially Haruno, Naruto and Sasuke seeing as they were in those horrendous jumpsuits) and disappeared towards their favorite lunch spots.

Sasuke stepped out of the change room and looked around for Haruno or that blonde kid that had been with her all day and growled slightly in frustration when he couldn't find them.

"Would you like to eat lunch with me Sasuke-kun? I could show you around and introduce you to some people." Ino said brightly as she stepped up to him, inwardly cheering at the slightly lost look on his face. If he was lost, he was more likely to accept her assistance.

Sasuke debated inwardly. Sure the blonde girl was flashy and pushy and loud and annoying but he was stuck seeing as he couldn't find his "guide". He did need to learn about the school and the people in it and this girl seemed like the social type so she would know everyone. She was probably the ideal guide for the moment. He sighed silently before nodding his head slightly and muttering an affirmative noise to Ino.

Ino smiled brightly as a cunning spark hid in her ice blue eyes.

Haruno lay out on the beaten up grass in the center of the track field with Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji.

This had been their lunch ritual since high school had started. None of them were really into the cliques and the crowds and so they simply took themselves away from it.

"That was some gym class eh? Gai-sensei sure hasn't gained any sense over the summer." Naruto stated with a grin.

Haruno smiled slightly as Shikamaru and Chouji chuckled a bit.

"Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Means he's consistent and reliable." Shikamaru said lazily as he watched the clouds.

"Yeah…I think that's what I like about Gai-sensei. He's a rock." Haruno said easily as she too watched the clouds.

"I can't believe he made you wear those jumpsuits. I'm glad I was there early enough to change, can you imagine him trying to force one of those green things on me?" Chouji said fearfully. The other three laughed at the idea of their chubby friend in spandex. Chouji just did not do spandex.

"So, how was everyone's summer?" Naruto asked as a sense of general happiness crept through him at the familiarity and comfort he had with his friends.

"Mine was ok, I spent most of it with my grandparents in the country helping with their deer and playing go." Shikamaru answered in his trademark lazy but content voice.

"I spent it helping at my family's restaurant. We won an award for best apply pie in the district." Chouji answered proudly and everyone congratulated him warmly.

"How about you Haruno?" Chouji asked her.

"I worked a lot…and spent some time with my boyfriend." She added with a soft smile, her eyes taking on a slightly dreamy cast.

"Well, I won a ramen eating contest and got free ramen for a year. I also got a better job and can now afford a nicer apartment. No more roaches!" Naruto said with a bright grin.

"Thank God for that, those things were so gross." Shikamaru said with disgust as the others grinned.

They were silent for a while, falling into their old pattern and enjoying the comfort of each other's company.

Their lunchtime ritual had started slowly. Shikamaru had always enjoyed cloud watching and disliked crowds so ever since he had started school, he'd always spend the lunch hours outside unless it was raining and even then, he tended to go out anyway. He and Chouji had become friends in primary school so Chouji had soon started joining Shikamaru outside and hadn't strayed from this habit yet.

Naruto had generally been an outcast throughout his childhood and had always escaped outside to vent his frustration and anger and get away from the people that caused it. In junior high, he'd stumbled upon Chouji and Shikamaru. They'd been eating and had some leftover food and had offered it to Naruto and Naruto had been eating with them outside ever since.

Haruno hadn't joined until her first year of high school. She'd been a very moody 14 year-old and had been constantly getting into fights with everyone; she'd had no patience for people. On the lunch hour of her first day she'd gone outside and lay down on the scarred grass to simply help relax and clear her head. Shikamaru had decided that she'd picked a great cloud watching spot and so had lay down near her, Chouji and Naruto had followed. Chouji had offered her some lunch and so she'd started talking to them.

And they'd simply done the same thing every day since.

An odd sort of camaraderie had evolved from it and had worked out to everyone's benefit. Shikamaru was really smart and so helped them with their homework when help was needed. Naruto could supply them with any kind of technology they could ever want at a really good price and had his own apartment and so could supply anyone with a place to crash when needed. Chouji was an awesome cook and supplied them all with decent food. And Haruno took care of them; protecting them in school and helping them sort out their problems whenever they had any.

Chouji sat up then and opened his backpack, pulling out a large bag and opening it.

"In celebration of our first day back at school for the 4th time, I made us all a special lunch." Chouji said proudly as everyone sat up, intrigued. He smiled brightly and handed out the four bentos.

And with a chorus of "thank you"s and "itadakimasu"s, everyone dug in with relish. Chouji's lunches were always incredible.

Haruno stretched out her hand before snapping her chopsticks apart, it still stung slightly from hitting Neji earlier.

She sighed contentedly; this was her favorite part of being back at school, lunch break.

Ino led Sasuke down the crowded halls to the cafeteria, she was chattering non-stop about some stupid subject or another; he wasn't really sure what, he'd tuned her out a while ago.

She was still babbling as she led him to a table full of younger girls who looked like her clones and sat down there. She made some gushing introduction to the girls who swooned accordingly before scanning the room and making remarks about the various cliques that could be found.

"This school is big on fighting, each clique has its prize members that protect the rest. Over in that dark corner, those are the weird people; they like it dark and quiet and keep to themselves a lot. They also tend to have weird special abilities and like animals. The people to avoid are Inuzuka Kiba (he's the furry looking one, avoid him, he always smells like a dog), Aburame Shino (he's really weird, he doesn't talk a lot and he likes bugs…)" she said sotto voce with a shudder "And then there's Hyuuga Hinata but she doesn't really like to fight so she's generally ignored.

"That table beside them, those students are OAC's, they're really popular and are almost royalty around here." Ino continued, pointing to a table full of very arrogant looking "cool" people. "The fighters are Hyuuga Neji (he's really strong and loves pounding on people so don't mess with him)—"

"Wait a sec." Sasuke interrupted her. "Neji and Hinata are both Hyuugas right? Are they related?" he asked her.

Ino's eye twitched slightly, she hated to be interrupted but then she smiled sweetly and responded readily.

"They're cousins in a very large and prestigious family. But they don't get along. Hinata is the heir to the main branch of the family and so is super rich and something of a spoiled brat. The only reason she's in a public school at all, especially this one, is because she begged her parents and because Neji already went here. Neji is part of the branch house and those members are almost servants to the main house. Neji is supposed to be Hinata's bodyguard here at school but they completely avoid each other and Neji really hates her." The blonde explained.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly before nodding for her to continue in her general introductions as he stored that information away for possible future exploitation.

"So as I was saying, the OAC's to avoid are Neji first, then there's Tenten (she's Neji's girlfriend and isn't as strong but has deadly aim with weapons so she's really dangerous in knife fights).

"That table by the window is a table for foreigner's, they're from the Middle East or Africa or something like that. Something with a desert anyway. They're really dangerous people, rumor has it they run the new mob in town. They're all fighters but you really want to watch out for Kankuro (he's the one with the face paint, he's weird, has a puppet fetish), Temari (that's the blonde girl, she likes fans and is a really smart and strategic fighter) and then Gaara (he's a year younger but he's the strongest, he has some weird power that I don't understand so that's all I know).

"Outside, training is the gym teacher Gai, who you'll remember for our last class, and the track and field team. Weirdly, they're a clique too but the only one worth fighting is Lee (that's the one who looks like Gai-sensei's clone)." Ino said easily.

She continued on, briefing him on all the different groups at the different tables before finishing with her own table and pointing out the abilities of all of her clones, finishing with herself as the strongest.

Sasuke though her to be negligible.

"What about those people in the field?" he asked her, his gaze still at the window.

"I already told you, that's Gai-se—" she began.

"Not them." He cut her off. "The ones lying down, that blonde guy and the pink haired girl." He elaborated.

Ino's eyes narrowed.

"They're negligible." She said sweetly.

"Humor me."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Fine. The lazy skinny one is Nara Shikamaru; he's a total lazy-ass who can't be bothered to do anything more strenuous than watch clouds. The fat one is Akimichi Chouji, he likes to eat and watch clouds with Shikamaru. The stupid blonde is that useless Uzumaki Naruto, he's a criminal and a weakling, he's always getting into fights and getting beat up." She said snidely.

"What about the girl?" Sasuke pressed.

"What girl?" Ino asked, being intentionally obtuse.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her.

"That's Haruno Sakura."

He looked up and met the pale eyes of Hyuuga Neji.

"She's a total bitch, mouths off to her teacher's, picks fights with everyone and is constantly sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong. She disappeared for a year when she was 13 and when she came back to school, her family was dead. Some think she killed them. Most people also think she's having an affair with Hatake Kakashi." The Hyuuga protégé told him.

He frowned slightly at the information, that didn't sound right.

"You're better off not making friends with her, it'll make you the enemy of everyone else." He continued, he cold white eyes holding Sasuke's black ones.

"You fascinate me. Come sit at our table." He ordered.

Sasuke considered, weighing his options. Allying himself with this Hyuuga Neji might be useful for now.

Sasuke stood and the pair walked back across the room.

Ino glared, how dare they leave her behind! Especially after she'd been so nice and useful to Sasuke-kun! She'd get him back for this.

"Tell me more about Haruno." Sasuke said as he sat down at the semi crowded table of upper class-men.

"She's a whore." Tenten answered spitefully.

"Why do you say that?" Sasuke asked her, these people kept making really harsh accusations but no one was justifying them.

"Because of her coat." The brunette girl answered, looking at him like he was the densest thing on the planet.

"What about her coat?" Sasuke asked, beginning to get frustrated.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Neji stated more than asked as a slightly condescending look came into his pale eyes.

"In this town, there is a very dangerous gang known as the Akatsuki." Neji began.

Sasuke struggled to keep his face impassive as a sudden rage swept through him at that hated name.

"There are nine members and all of them wear black leather trench coats with a large red circle on the back. The subordinates of the Akatsuki, people who aren't true members but want to be, wear red trench coats with black circles. Now, these people are highly dangerous criminals who are responsible for at least 60% of the crime that goes on in this district and considering the amount of gangs and mobs around here, that's really impressive." Neji explained.

"What does this have to do with Haruno?" Sasuke asked him, his face still eerily calm as his heart pounded in anticipation.

Neji frowned inwardly, something about this new kid had changed as soon as he'd mentioned the Akatsuki and he got the distinct impression that he was expecting something.

"Well, every now and then, the Akatsuki take on charges, people they protect. But it is a very rare thing seeing as all nine members have to agree to want to look out for this person. Those chosen are given a red trench coat with a white circle on the back. Haruno is the only known person to wear one." Neji told him seriously.

And suddenly it made sense. That's why everyone was afraid of her and resented her. She was under the protection of the most fearsome group of individuals around.

A slow smirk crept across Sasuke's lips. She was his link to the Akatsuki. He'd been right when he'd seen her this morning; she was perfect. She would be the key to his revenge.

"Most people believe that the only reason the Akatsuki is interested in her is because she's good in bed as has become their personal hooker." Tenten added in.

"So what about you? Why are you so interested in Haruno?" Neji asked him them.

Sasuke snapped out of his inner musings and gave him a lazy look.

"She's fascinating." He answered simply.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for which Haruno was grateful, she'd almost been in two fights already today as well as several arguments with Kakashi-kun and this was only the first day of school.

Her afternoon classes had been pleasant surprises though, a good consolation prize for her miserable morning. She'd had math with Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru and the whole "cloud clique" had had visual arts together last period.

Sasuke was quite sure by the time he went home that this school was indeed a strange one. He's spent the whole afternoon turning down dates from girls and turning down fight challenges from guys. People just couldn't seem to leave him alone. To top it off, that Hyuuga guy had managed to get him to eat lunch again with his crew tomorrow. Something he definitely did not want to do. He had to extricate himself from this attention as soon as possible; it was distracting from his purpose and could even turn out to be harmful to it. But the afternoon hadn't been unproductive; he'd begun to formulate his plot. The first step would be to get close to Haruno and he had several ideas as to how to do that.

Naruto was just happy to go home, he'd been tired to begin with but school had drained him even more, he was quite sure it was a miracle that he hadn't passed out on his way home.


	2. Gai's Great Idea

Disclaimer: I most certainly do not own Naruto. If I did, I guarantee that the women would be way stronger and far more badass…

A/N: I am really, really sorry about how long it took for this chapter. There are a plethora of reasons, if you're really interested in knowing what they are I ranted about them in my livejournal. Also, in case this ever happens again, I do post writing updates and chapter previews in my livejournal so feel free to go check there for progress (www. livejournal. com/ users/ anotherstraycat)

Aside from that, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the first chapter and waited so patiently for this one. I hope you all enjoy. The next chapter shouldn't take nearly as much time. And as always, please review

Hindsight's 20/20: Chapter 2

By: Tea Leaf/Banana Soap

_"Ha-Haruno! Trust me man, you don't want to ask questions. You don't want to get involved!"_

_"She terrifies me. I mean, look at her the wrong way and the Akatsuki assassins will kill you, your family and everyone who's ever known you!"_

_"She's all hype. She's a wimp who needs to hide behind her stupid red coat."_

_"She's so mysterious…did you know that she disappeared for a year in junior high? I heard that she was working for the Yakuza!"_

_"They say she killed her family in cold blood. For no reason! She just sliced them to ribbons with a katana!"_

_"Haruno knows everything. You think she's not paying attention but she's seeing everything."_

_"Did you know that she's claimed Hatake-sensei? No girl is allowed to go near him or Haruno will beat her up."_

_"I heard that the last person who asked too many questions about her (like you're doing) was horribly mutilated and murdered then left in the river to rot."_

_"I heard she's the personal slave to one of the Akatsuki members which is why she has that coat."_

_"I heard she earned her coat by running a huge underground narcotics ring in China when she was 13."_

_"I heard that she murdered the true owner of the coat and stole it from the corpse on a dare and that earned her the Akatsuki's respect which is why she's still alive and still has the coat."_

Sasuke stared at the living room ceiling in his luxurious one bedroom apartment from his resting place on the leather couch. No one knew anything about her, not really. They thought they did, the rumors had covered her past perfectly and built an impenetrable barrier around her person. Some feared her. Some worshiped her. Some hated her. All were connected to her in some way.

He'd inquired subtly, he'd inquired blatantly and all he'd received were fickle rumors that never stood on their own.

His eyes narrowed at the ceiling.

This would not do.

He had to know. He had to know everything about her. He had to be able to manipulate her.

A switch flicked on in his mind.

Maybe that was it. Maybe that explained it. She was afraid of being manipulated by her past so she'd erased it.

He smirked.

That meant the story was huge. Everyone knew it. She'd distracted them enough for them not to make the connection.

What were the rumors again…drugs…organized crime…murder…Akatsuki…age 13. Those were the recurring themes.

He sat up and forced his body from the couch. He had to find out.

He went to a desk in the corner of the room and turned on the high tech computer there.

She'd been a minor, she would be difficult to find. He'd start by finding her parents.

He popped his neck and cracked his knuckles. He stretched his fingers and set them to the keyboard. This might require some fast hacking.

(…)

Kakashi struggled to keep his half lidded eye from closing completely. He hated faculty meetings. Especially the first one of the year.

They dragged on forever.

He needed coffee…now…and lots of it.

Sandaime was prattling on about the same things he prattled on about every year. Dress code…weapons…grading…assignments…new teachers…new projects…

He stifled a yawn behind his mask, as his eye grew heavier. He nodded forward.

He snapped back awake as he received a sharp jab in the ribs. He turned and glared slightly at Iruka who frowned sternly at him.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, slouching deeply into it.

Sandaime was finally finished his yearly "first day pep talk", the floor was now open to anyone who had anything to address to the group.

To no one's surprise, Gai shot to the front of the meeting room. Kakashi grimaced at his green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers. He really didn't need to see Gai in such form-fitting clothes…especially not on the first day.

But Gai dressed like that everyday. The first day had never been any exception.

That was another thing he hated about the first day. He had to see Gai in his green bodysuit after two months of repressing the image to his deepest, darkest, most traumatizing nightmares.

Gai was babbling on about something or other, Kakashi couldn't hear him. It felt like he had cotton in his ears. He was grateful for it, he hated Gai's rants, especially now after he'd already endured eight hours of rebellious adolescents and an hour and a half of Sandaime's speech.

Kakashi watched Gai's theatrics through glazed eyes…he really wanted to get out of here. Finally, it looked like Gai was finished talking. He was looking around the room expectantly.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow slightly as Gai looked specifically at him.

"So, will you help me in this project?" Gai asked boisterously.

Kakashi considered. If he said no, Gai would keep talking and he'd have to stay here. If he said yes, he could leave.

"I guess." He said lazily, not quite sure what he was agreeing to.

After Kakashi consented, several other teachers decided to help out as well.

Gai was ecstatic and promised that he'd tell his class about it tomorrow.

Kakashi frowned…he'd agreed to do something that involved Gai's gym class…fuck.

He sighed, too late now.

Finally Gai sat down and after a few words from the librarian and the cafeteria crew, Sandaime declared the meeting to be over. Kakashi almost whooped with relief. He would have had he not been still half asleep and bored stiff.

"A bunch of us are going out for dinner, wanna come?" Iruka asked him.

Kakashi considered. Restaurants sold coffee. And this way he could mock his colleagues and their miserable first day back (he would of course lie to them and say his had been great just to one up them). And he might be able to subtly inquire as to what he had just volunteered to do for Gai.

"Sure…not like I've got anything better to do anyway." He responded in his lazy drawl.

Iruka grinned and said something that Kakashi tuned out and the pair left the conference room with Kurenai and Asuma.

(…)

Shikamaru lay in the grass in the schoolyard watching the clouds as the sky slowly darkened. He'd been here for hours but then, it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go.

The clouds were darkening to various shades of gray as the light faded and tinged them with red here and there.

Blood red.

That reminded him, he had work to do at sunset. His lip curled. He didn't want to go. It was so troublesome.

He just wanted to stay here…he could sleep here easily and then he'd be conveniently close to school in the morning. It would save him the trouble of going to work…of dealing with those psychos…of walking the streets at night…of finding a place to sleep for the night…man, his life was so troublesome lately. How had he gotten himself into this?

All he'd ever wanted was to pass through life easily and unnoticed. But now here he was, up to his elbows in blood every night as he worked for the crime lords of the black market.

It had happened in small steps, he hadn't realized it happening until he was in too deep.

If he had to pick a starting date, he'd have to say it was probably the night his parents were killed in the line of duty.

His eyes stung and shame flared across his cheekbones as he remembered them. They must be so ashamed of him, of what he'd become. Of who he now worked for. 

The sky continued to darken, the colors draining away to leave nothing but black.

"Time to go." Came an intrusive, deceptively kind voice.

Shikamaru briefly closed his eyes, bracing himself for the night to come. He sighed and stood, turning to face the kindly smiling Kabuto.

"Come on then, those bodies won't dissect themselves." He said easily.

"It would be a lot less troublesome if they did." Shikamaru responded numbly.

Kabuto chuckled slightly but gave him a sharp look before turning and heading back to the waiting black car. Shikamaru followed.

(…)

It was a small room with air clouded by cigarette smoke. The only smells were the overpowering ones of ash and coffee. Bitter, black coffee. It was dark outside; several of the nearby streetlights had all been smashed in. The lights inside were sparse, only a handful of the bare light bulbs that clung desperately to the crumbling ceiling actually gave out their flickering light. The room was full of nice shady alcoves.

Situated in a sketchier outlet near the downtown core, it was ideal for the sketchier characters that found themselves loitering the streets for whatever reason.

Haruno hated it here. She hated cigarette smoke; it burned her lungs. She hated coffee…well, maybe not all coffee but she certainly hated the coffee here. It was too thick, too stale. Everything was stale here, the coffee, the smoke, the bread, the air. She felt like she was suffocating every time she stepped through the door.

But the pay was good, the patrons kept to themselves and left her alone for the most part, and her schedule was flexible so she could still attend school.

Just one more year of this and then she'd be done. She'd leave. She'd be free. She'd never work in a place like this again. She'd never deal with people like the ones here again.

"Oy oy, Sakura-chan"

She'd never have to listen to those words again.

"Yeah boss?" she answered as she walked over, her steps shortened by the faded pink skirt of her dinner uniform.

"Table 7." He told her without looking up from his grill. She nodded and turned, reversing her steps and heading to table 7.

She inwardly braced herself as she spotted the regular now sitting in the booth.

"Hey, what can I get you?" she asked in a disinterested tone. In any other place she might be fired for being rude with the customers but here, no one cared about her attitude.

"Ah Haruno. Working the night shifts again?" He asked in his deep gravely voice, muffled slightly by the bandages around his jaw.

"School's back in." she answered briefly.

The assassin snorted derisively.

"Fuck school. It just trains clones. You should quit." He told her.

She suppressed a sigh. He'd been telling her this for the past three years of her employment here.

"There's not much to do that's worthwhile when you don't have a high school diploma." She answered him, falling into their customary dialogue.

"You don't need any degree to work for me. And believe me, the pay makes it very worthwhile." He told her, attempting to tempt her.

"And become your weapon like Haku? No thanks, the money would be nice but I'd rather be poor and human than rich and a machine." She answered him apathetically.

"Haku thought it was worthwhile." He pressed her.

"And look where that got him." She answered a little sadly.

He stopped talking and ignored the sting she'd tried to inflict with her words.

"Are you getting anything Zabuza?" she asked him, closing the discussion.

"Coffee." He answered as he turned to look out the grimy dinner windows.

She turned and headed behind the counter to grab the pot of coffee then returned and filled his mug. Neither said anything and she left to tend to other customers. 

(…)

Kakashi glared at the overcast night sky as he wandered the city streets. Diner had been boring…same old conversations with the same old people. And just like every time, he'd had a bit too much wine. The cool night air was helping to clear his head but he still needed coffee. Come to think of it, he hadn't gotten any coffee at the restaurant…and he'd forgotten to ask about Gai…_{damn…}_

He continued to wander the dark streets, any other than he might be worried about the various eyes that watched him from the shadows and alleys but he had nothing to fear. He was legendary and no one would dare start anything with him. He smirked slightly to himself behind the still upraised cotton of his turtleneck.

He soon spotted a small rundown building with a flickering neon caricature of a cup of coffee.

His mouth started to water at the thought of the bitter brew. He walked towards the building and pulled open the stained, glass door. A small bell rang overhead and the man behind a counter near the back of the shop where the grill was situated looked up.

"Hey man, take a seat, a waitress'll be with you in a sec." He called out to him.

Kakashi nodded his thanks and wandered over to an empty, shady table.

"Hatake, long time no see." Came a deep voice from the booth at his back. He smirked darkly as he recognized the voice and his mind immediately switched gears.

"Zabuza, how's the weapon business?" he asked pointedly.

"We're recruiting. Interested?" the man to his back answered.

"Heh, tempting, but I'm otherwise obliged." Kakashi answered in a bored tone as he waited for the waitress.

Zabuza smirked beneath the bandages covering his jaw as he reclined in his booth, his back to Kakashi.

"Ah yes, that teaching gig at the high school." Zabuza responded good-naturedly. "How can you stand it?" he asked then, his lip curling at the thought of a classroom full of delinquent upstarts and a rule against corporal punishment.

"Damned if I know." His dark eye roamed the room searching for the server and his smirk grew and his interest sparked as he spotted her.

"There are a few perks." He continued to the other man.

Zabuza frowned slightly and twisted to look over his shoulder at him only to spot the reason for the comment.

"Aha, so you're interested in her too." Zabuza smirked.

"Hardly, but she is entertaining." Kakashi responded, a slight darkness to his tone.

Haruno brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes as she walked over to the counter to grab the fresher carafe of coffee then turned to head to the newly occupied table. She froze and her eyes narrowed as she spotted the new customer. _{Oh great, just what I needed right now…}_ she thought surlily before forcing her feet forward.

"Sakura-chan! What a pleasant surprise." Kakashi said fakely as she grew close.

Haruno forced a sweet smile onto her lips and resisted the urge to grab a kunai from the pouch strapped to her thigh under her skirt and carve out his good eye.

"Kakashi-kun, what brings you to this part of town?" she asked in a dark voice that contrasted her kind expression.

"Just out for a walk, got a craving for some coffee." He answered her, his own voice deceptively light as his mind switched back to teacher mode.

"Sucks to be you then, this is the worst coffee you'll ever drink." She responded, her false smile dropped as she allowed her eyes to narrow in distaste and turned his mug over to fill it.

"Now now Sakura-chan, that's not something you should tell a customer." Kakashi reprimanded her sarcastically.

She curled her lip at him but she resisted the urge to snarl.

"Is that all?" she asked rudely.

"For now, thank you." He told her. "Sakura-chan." He added just as she started to turn.

She clenched her empty hand into a fist and her eyes narrowed dangerously but she did nothing, deciding now was one of those times when she should just walk away.

She growled low in her throat as she walked back to the counter. That bastard was taunting her.

Kakashi chuckled a little, he'd have to remember this place so that he could come back and torment her some more. It was sadistically fun to watch her rise to his bait each time but be unable to respond.

"Hmph, perks are that you get to play with your students? Not good enough for me." Zabuza told him as they watched the pink haired girl walk away.

"Well, to each their own, ne?" Kakashi responded lightly as he pulled down his turtleneck and brought the once white mug to his lips.

The corners of his mouth pulled down in distaste. She was right; this was the worst coffee he'd ever had. He glared across the shop at her; she smirked back at him. Damn her for getting the better of him after all.

He sighed and grabbed the sugar and attempted to pour a generous amount into the cup. Unfortunately though, the sugar was stale and so didn't pour.

He set the sugar down with a shrug and drank the coffee anyway. Zabuza shook his head and turned back to the still full mug of coffee in front of him.

He wasn't going to drink it. He never drank it. It was just his excuse to come and try to persuade Haruno.

The small bell signaled that the door was being opened again and everyone looked up only to suddenly tense.

There was a tall man wearing a long black trench coat that hid his body and a wide brimmed straw hat that obscured his face.

His eyes searched the room and landed on Haruno.

"Time to go." He said simply, his voice holding a disembodied quality.

She nodded once then turned to the owner at the grill. He nodded quickly and she went into the back room, emerging a second later with her school bag and wearing her long red coat. The man at the doorway moved out of the way, holding the door open for her and she smiled slightly to thank him as she passed. He turned and followed her, the door closing solidly behind them and the red circle on the back of the man's coat fading into the night.

There was an audible breath of relief in the room.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

(…)

The pair walked down the dark streets with ease, all cringing away from the tall Akatsuki member and his ward.

"Kisame…" she started softly, breaking the silence as they approached the run down building that housed her apartment.

The tall man paused and turned to look at her, his eyes glowing slightly from within the shadows cast by his straw hat.

"Has he not returned?" she questioned as she looked towards her dark apartment windows.

He followed her gaze and continued walking; she fell into step beside him.

"Soon." Was his only response.

The reached the decrepit building and she unlocked the lobby door. He followed her inside, walking her up to the top floor where her apartment was located.

The numbers that had once been on the doors were now long gone or rusted into illegibility.

"Thank you for escorting me." Haruno said as she unlocked her front door.

Kisame stepped passed her and did a quick inspection of the rooms before returning to the door, nodding to her and leaving.

She stood there for a moment, watching him disappear down the hall, watching the red circle.

She turned away and walked into her apartment, closing the door behind her and locking it.

She leaned against it as she looked around.

Her walls were bare brick; the mortar holding the stone together was cracked and crumbling. The few windows were stained and very little light ever managed to filter through. The overhead light was bare and harsh but not nearly bright enough to illuminate the room. The furniture was old and threadbare.

She sighed. Home sweet home.

She pushed away from the door and walked over to the door that led to her bedroom. She opened it and stepped in. Not bothering with the light, she slipped off her coat, throwing it onto a chair in the corner and then preceded to strip off her faded work uniform that she threw into the laundry hamper along with the rest of the clothing she'd been wearing.

She pulled a worn, now gray robe over her shoulders, cinching it loosely as the waist before moving into the bathroom.

There was some stubborn mold in the ceiling corners, the mirror and ceramic of the room was stained and cracked. The bathtub leaked and the shower didn't work.

But at least there was hot water.

She walked to the tub and turned the hot water knob then set the plug, allowing the scalding water to pool within the ceramic container.

She left the room as the water poured and went to the antique kitchenette and set about making a pot of coffee. She wouldn't drink the stuff herself but Kisame had said he'd be home soon and he always liked having coffee ready for him.

That done, she went back to the bathroom. The bathtub was almost full now so she slipped off her robe and stepped into the scalding water, hissing slightly at the shock as the heat connected with her skin. But her body adjusted quickly, she was used to it. Here the water was either scalding hot or ice cold, there was no in between.

She lay down, letting the heat wash over her as she sank into the liquid. She waited for a few more moments as the water continued to pour then turned off the tap as the tub was finally filled.

It was quiet. The silence of the apartment marred only by the light dripping from the kitchen faucet. It never closed properly.

Haruno sighed and let her body slip deeper and deeper into the water until she was completely submerged.

She loved the weightlessness of her body and the watery echo in her ears.

She opened her eyes. She loved looking through water; it finally justified her skewed vision of the world. She lay perfectly still, holding her breath for as long as she could.

The top of the water started to ripple. Something was moving outside the room.

She smiled slightly and allowed herself to float to the surface, raising her hands to smooth her hair away from her face and wipe the water from her eyes.

She looked to the doorway. He looked back at her with his one good, blood red eye.

As she watched, the red faded as he deactivated his almost constant sharingan and his eye returned to black.

"Welcome home." She said softly to him, smiling gently.

He pushed away from the doorway and began to slowly and stiffly strip off his clothing as she watched him silently.

She loved watching him; he was the only thing she felt she saw clearly. He was beautiful. He pulled his black shirt off, loosening the tie that held back his long black hair. The loosened strands shadowed his face, obscuring his features slightly. But it didn't matter seeing as she already had them memorized, right down to the precise course of the long red scar that ran over his left eye socket. He was well muscled, she loved the way they rippled smoothly with his every motion. His skin was heavily flawed, his scars a testament to the hard life he chose to lead. He never explained his scars.

He pulled off his pants and she frowned at the long gash that now ran along his right thigh that had been crudely stitched back together. She knew better than to ask about it though.

Now as naked as she, he stepped into the hot water with her, reclining his back to her chest as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and spread her thighs so that he could sit between them.

He exhaled softly as he let the hot water sooth his tense muscles and relished the feel of her skin to his.

He'd missed that.

She didn't say anything, he didn't like to talk much and she understood that. She held him close to her for a moment, letting him know without her words that she'd missed him and was glad he was back.

Then she moved her hands to his shoulders, slowly massaging the knots out of the muscles. He moaned softly in the back of his throat as her hands moved to his neck.

She smiled a little to herself; his neck was so sensitive. She brushed his long hair aside and pressed her lips softly to the nape of his neck as her hands continued their work on his shoulders.

"How was school?" he asked her in his expressionless voice as he leaned forward slightly, giving her better access to the muscles in his upper back.

"It was ok. Same as always I guess. How was your mission?" she asked, taking her cue from him.

"Tiring." He answered emotionlessly.

"Kisame took you home and inspected the apartment every day?" he asked her then.

She smiled a little to herself; he was protective of her.

"Yes he did." She answered him.

"We should get out so I can give you a better massage and take a look at your leg." She said softly.

He leaned back again and her hands slipped over his shoulders and back to his chest, hugging him to her again.

They sat like that for a moment until she felt him sigh and pull away to stand up and step out of the tub. He then reached for her hands and helped her stand then picked her up and set her on the floor.

"Thank you" she said as his hands lingered at her waist and she leaned forward and pressed her lips lightly to his before he pulled away and handed her a towel so that she could dry off.

(…)

Shikamaru yawned as sunlight trickled through the window and into his eyes.

He blinked them open and sat up, still half asleep. He brought his hands up to rub his eyes as he yawned again. He blinked his eyes clear and looked at the digital clock the motel had been kind enough to provide him.

9:30.

He blinked at it incomprehensively.

9:30…9:30…

His eyes snapped wide, school started an hour ago!

He leapt from the bed pulling on his discarded shirt and shoes, grabbed his backpack and tore out of the room, tossing a few bills at the counter clerk as he flew by.

(…)

Haruno slouched in the auditorium chair as she waited for the assembly to commence.

Naruto sat to her left and Chouji to her right, Shikamaru had been missing this morning.

Naruto yawned loudly. He still wasn't used to getting up this early after a summer of sleeping in until noon everyday.

"Wonder what the assembly's for…" Chouji half asked aloud.

"Same thing it is every year." Haruno responded. "Welcome back, no hazing the freshmen, attempt to remember the dress code, etc. etc."

"I heard that Gai's gonna be announcing something too." Naruto added.

Haruno recoiled at the thought then shrugged.

"At least we're missing out on Kakashi-kun's English class." She stated nonchalantly.

"Yeah, sometimes its awesome that he hates teaching, every time class is cut in the least he cancels it all together." Naruto said with a grin.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I slept in. What's going on?" Shikamaru asked as he sat down beside Chouji.

"Just the upperclassmen assembly. Hatake-sensei cancelled his English class this morning so Haruno and Naruto had it off. Kurenai didn't cancel philosophy though so I'll pass you my notes later." Chouji answered him.

"Thanks man!" Shikamaru said with a grin.

Suddenly the crowd around them started cheering and they all looked to the stage to see that Neji, the Student Council President, had come to the front. The assembly was commencing.

Naruto and Haruno boo-ed him but were drowned out.

Neji launched into his pep talk about upcoming school events and other random student body activities that Haruno didn't care about so she tuned him out.

The student council was all introduced; to no ones surprise all the members were part of Neji's clique. Grade representative elections were announced, anyone who wanted to apply were to fill in forms and drop them off at the office…etc. etc.

It was the same spiel they heard every year.

When that was over, Principal Sandaime came to the front and gave his yearly speech, welcoming everyone and going over the school ground rules.

Haruno sighed in boredom as before shoving the now asleep Naruto off her shoulder.

Finally Sandaime finished and there was much shuffling as students prepared to leave, seeing as this was when the assembly was usually over. However, this year was a little unique.

"Students, please wait! There is one last announcement." Sandaime said as he shifted on the stage, leaving room for Gai.

Haruno sat up slightly and nudged Naruto awake.

"Great, youthful students! Good news! This summer, while I was preparing my schedule for the year, I had a brilliant idea! This year, we will be holding a competition for the whole school that will test both your mental and physical abilities!" Gai began with his trademark enthusiasm and histrionics.

"Teams of three will team up with a teacher of their choice to enter in an all out combat competition! You will test your fighting capabilities as well as your strategic thinking in an organized tournament. This first semester will be dedicated to training and will hold several team sparring matches to learn your enemies and improve yourselves. In the second term, we will hold a huge competition between all of the teams. The Winning team will receive all As on their report cards and a guaranteed diploma!" Gai exclaimed.

The auditorium was on the edge of their seats, if they won the competition, they could slack off all year and still pass!

"Just kidding!" Gai said then and laughed uproariously.

The auditorium sweat dropped.

"That was the prize I wanted to give but unfortunately, I'm not allowed. So, the Winning team will receive a full, first year scholarship to whatever post-secondary educational institute they choose to attend!" Gai continued.

Several jaws dropped around the room. A full scholarship, those were difficult things to get around here.

Haruno bit her lip.

"Registration starts during lunch hour!" Gai finished and with that the assembly was dismissed and the students made their way to their respective classes.

Haruno, Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji all made their way to the change rooms beside the gym.

(…)

Sasuke sat near the back of the gym benches as he waited for the class to start. Haruno was still out of reach, as she had been all morning but she was in his sights.

He'd corner her during the lunch break.

He smirked darkly to himself.

Everything was falling into place.

(…)

Haruno sighed and tried to shake the feeling that she was being watched as she watched Gai finally walk into the gym and start the class.

"Students! As you heard earlier at the assembly, this year will be host to a great competition!" Gai boomed.

The class muttered a yes and Gai continued.

"I have decided that this will be a mandatory activity for all members of this Gym Class!"

The students looked up, shocked and confused as a murmur rose from their ranks.

Gai held up his hands for silence.

"Seeing as you will all be participating in this event, my regular gym class in cancelled. You will all be using this allocated time block to train for the event." He continued.

A murmur rose again as the class was now intrigued.

"As I said earlier, the teams will be composed of 3 students and a teacher to train you. For this class, the teams and teachers have already been assigned." Gai continued.

The class frowned, what if they got a bad team?

"Team 1!" Gai boomed as he pulled out a list.

"Students: Rock Lee! Hyuuga Neji! Tenten! Teacher: Maito Gai!" He announced.

Lee and Tenten cheered for respective reasons.

"Please wait here until all the teams have been announced." Gai told the trio.

"Team 2!" Gai continued. The students were named and their teacher, seeing as he didn't have to teach this period, took the trio and set about training them immediately.

And the list continued. Gai seemed to have managed to enlist every teacher that had a spare for second period to coach on of the teams.

"Team 7!" Gai shouted as the still remaining students yawned and waited.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Uchiha Sasuke! Haruno Sakura!" he called out.

Naruto cheered, he was with Haruno.

Sasuke smirked, he couldn't have planned it better himself.

Haruno remained impassive, waiting for the fourth member to be announced.

"Teacher: Hatake Kakashi!" Gai continued.

Haruno barely resisted her snarl.

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly from the side room where he'd been waiting. He was going to throttle Gai for this.

Kurenai shoved him out the door and into the gym.

The three students stood and walked over to him.

Kakashi watched them approach, using the few seconds to compose himself.

"Let's go outside." He told them as the three reached him and turned to head for the door.

Surprisingly, Haruno didn't give him any lip and fell into step behind him, as did Sasuke and Naruto.

(…)

"So…" Kakashi began awkwardly.

They were sitting under one of the few trees in the schoolyard near the racetrack.

He honestly had no idea what to do or say, he'd only found out at the assembly what it was he'd volunteered to do and so had had no time to prep.

Haruno watched him with her hard, narrowed green eyes.

He resisted the urge to narrow his eyes back at her.

"The first step to working in a team, is knowing your teammates. So lets start with some introductions." He said eventually, deciding that this would be an appropriate starting point.

The three looked at him blankly.

"Anyone want to start?" he asked then, a little unnerved by their lack of reaction.

"How about you start?" Haruno said archly.

He lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Ok…well, my name is Hatake Kakashi…I have a few hobbies but I don't feel like getting into those…I have several likes and dislikes but I don't really want to share them…I have a few goals…so yeah…How about you Naruto?" he asked.

Haruno glared at him, he hadn't actually told them anything.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" the blonde said brightly. "I really like instant ramen! I really hate waiting the three minutes it takes for the ramen to cook. As for hobbies…I dunno, sleep if you can call that a hobby!" He said with a laugh. "My goal is to become a professional race car driver!" he finished with his trademark foxy grin.

Kakashi smiled slightly under the upraised material of his turtleneck shirt. Maybe having Naruto around would help lighten the tension between he and Sakura-chan.

He nodded to Naruto then looked expectantly at Haruno.

"My name is Haruno. I like being left alone and beating people up. I hate being called Sakura, especially Sakura-chan, and I hate pompous people. I don't have time for hobbies. My goal is to get as far away from here as possible as soon as I can and never return" She said in her hard voice.

Kakashi sweat dropped slightly then turned to look at Sasuke.

He sighed.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. Likes…Dislikes…Hobbies…I don't really bother with them. My goal…well, it's a little too dark to share here." He answered cryptically with a dark look.

The other three looked at him warily.

Kakashi coughed slightly, unable to think of a response to that. 

Thankfully, the lunch bell rang then and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, that's enough for today. So, we'll meet tomorrow and start some training I guess. Oh yeah, don't eat breakfast tomorrow, you'll get sick during training." He said as he stood up.

"Ok, see you then sensei!" Naruto called out to him as he walked away.

Kakashi raised a hand in a half-hearted wave.

Haruno moved to where Kakashi had been sitting and reclined against the tree's trunk, mentally cursing him for taking the good spot before she could earlier.

The three sat in silence for a minute before it started to get awkward and Naruto and Haruno looked at Sasuke, both mentally wondering why he was still here.

Sasuke was going to ignore them and stay right where he was but then he spotted Neji walking towards him and remembered that he was supposed to eat lunch with him and his crew today.

Internally grimacing he stood and walked towards the advancing Hyuuga protégé and headed to the cafeteria with him.

"What a psycho, ne Haruno?" Naruto said as he watched Uchiha walk away.

"Yeah, there's something off about him…" she responded idly as she watched him leave. Somehow he seemed familiar.

"I can't believe we're stuck with her or all people!" Shikamaru complained loudly as he and Chouji walked over to Haruno and Naruto.

"Stuck with who?" Naruto asked them as the pair sat down on the grass with them.

"That loudmouth Yamanaka Ino!" Shikamaru told them.

Haruno and Naruto laughed at them.

"At least we're with Asuma-sensei though, right Shikamaru?" Chouji said.

"Yeah, at least this way its Ino who's the odd one out, not us." Shikamaru answered.

"Well, there are worse things than Ino." Haruno told them as she stared up at the sky through the green leaves of the tree.


	3. Survival Training

Disclaimer: Naruto most certainly is not mine but this story is as are the original ideas in it so no thieving of it please.

A/N: Chapter 3, finally finished! And 26 pages in Microsoft word, my longest chapter ever! Yay happy dances

To answer a few questions:

About Haruno, it will be explained why she's called Haruno instead of Sakura, probably in the next chapter or at the very least, it will be heavily hinted at.

About the updates: Yes, I realize I'm slower with this fic that I was with "The Butterfly" My reasons are that this story has chapters that are about 3 times the length of the chapters in "The Butterfly" and are much more detailed and have a lot more subtle hints worked into them and so they take a lot longer for me to write. Also, I don't have as much time to write seeing as my brother moved home and so I have to share the computer a lot more, the house is a lot noisier and so its much more difficult to concentrate on writing and I'm currently job hunting so I'm not even home all that often to write. I'm sorry its taking longer but please just bear with me, I'm doing my best.

If you're feeling particularly impatient, I do post several teasers for future chapters in my livejournal (www. livejournal. com/ users/ anotherstraycat) so check there.

Anyways, thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 2, I hope you enjoy chapter 3 and I look forward to your reactions

Oh, and also, there has been a slight modification to chapter two, Kakashi now tells team 7 not to eat breakfast before he leaves after their intro session.

(…)

Hindsight's 20/20: Chapter 3

By: Tea Leaf/Banana Soap

(…)

Lunch passed easily, math passed in a blur and now finally Haruno found herself in her favorite class: visual arts with Shiranui Genma.

The room was located on the first floor of the school and the back wall was completely lined with windows so that the art students had lots of light to work with. There were four large, long tables made of thick, polished wood that were placed more or less centered in the room and had several chairs and benches around them.

Haruno sat at the end facing the window of the table closest to the door. Naruto sat beside her, Shikamaru opposite her and Chouji beside Shikamaru.

Yesterday they had been given free reign to check out the class supplies and experiment a little and today Genma-sensei was supposed to explain the year's projects.

Said teacher was standing in front of the blackboards that ran along the wall opposite the windows and was waiting for the second bell to ring as he chewed on a long toothpick.

Haruno liked Genma; he was very laid back and surprisingly creative and so allowed the students had complete creative freedom. He was also a really good teacher, he could explain anything to anyone and passed on his knowledge with ease.

Eventually the second bell rang and a few late students scrambled in. Genma left the door open, he didn't really care about punctuality and noise wasn't a bother seeing as the hall in from of the art room was usually deserted.

"Alright…so, last year, if you recall, we concentrated on objects and landscapes." The teacher began as he leaned casually against the blackboard behind him.

Several students nodded in response and he continued.

"So this year, we're going to work on people. You should all already have a strong base when it comes to color, technique and forms so portraits and anatomy are the logical step."

He now walked over to his desk and picked up a pile of papers and handed the pack to the first student so that it could be handed around.

"As described on the sheet you'll receive, this semester's overall project will be 3 pieces. They can be portraits, they can be bodies, they can be realistic, they can be cartoon, they can be abstract. Whatever you want really, but they have to be three people. More specifically, three people that have had an impact on your life." He explained.

"What do you mean by impact?" a student on the other side of the class asked.

"I mean people that changed you in some way, that influenced you. They can be parents, friends, idols, random people you've only seen once in your life, anyone as long as they struck some kind of cord in you."

"So what do you want us to do with these people?" another student asked.

"The goal of this is to try and recreate how you see this person or how they influenced you. To create something that relays how you see them. So, for example, lets say you were to pick your mother as a person who's influenced you. How has she influenced you? Lets say she's helped you become a confidant person, to look on the bright side of life, etc. etc. So here you have all these positive emotions that you associate to this person. So theoretically, when you see this person, you feel those emotions. Now your goal is to create something using the image of your mother that will inspire the same emotions you feel towards your mother in someone else." He explained.

"Or it could be something totally different, it could be that you saw someone save someone who was chocking or something like that and that event marked you. So now you want to draw the event that made this person important to you." He continued.

"So, the details. I want three pieces, one for each person. You can do them however you like, with whatever medium you like, but there does have to be some image of the person in the actual artwork. I don't care how you do it, but when I look at it, I need to see a person in it. Sound good?" he asked then.

Several students nodded and no one asked any more questions.

"Great. Ok, so any questions about anything, don't hesitate to ask. For today, start thinking about the people you want to use. If you figure that out, then start planning your first piece." He finished and headed over to his desk.

Haruno watched him for a moment, considering the project.

"Hmm…I wonder who I should pick…" Naruto muttered as he stared at the project sheet in front of him.

"I have no idea who to pick, no one really springs to mind." Shikamaru responded.

"I know I definitely want Chairman Kaga Takeshi from Iron Chef!" Chouji said.

Haruno smiled slightly.

"Why him Chouji?" she asked.

"Because he has influenced the way I look at cooking. Everything should be savored and only the best should be served at someone's table. And because I also admire his charisma when it comes to eating." Chouji informed them.

"That sounds great Chouji. Very good choice." Genma said from behind him as he did the rounds of the class.

"You think so sensei?" Chouji asked, surprised by the teacher's presence and unexpected praise.

"Definitely, I look forward to seeing how you put it into art." The sensei responded before moving on.

"Good idea Chouji. I should find something like that." Shikamaru told him.

"Any ideas yet, Naruto?" Haruno asked the blonde beside her, snapping him out of his distant air.

"Yeah…I've got this one idea…I think I'll do Yondaime for one of them." He answered.

"Yondaime?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Yeah…He's this guy I knew when I was little…I don't really remember much about him other than his name and a fuzzy image of what he looks like but I'm pretty sure he became my conscience. So that's how he influences me." Naruto answered.

"A personification of your conscience…brilliant concept." Shikamaru told him.

"Man…why didn't I think of that…" he muttered to himself.

Naruto grinned proudly.

"How about you Haruno-chan? Know who you'll do yet?" Naruto asked the pink-haired girl.

"Yeah…I've got some pretty good ideas…" she answered vaguely, looking out the window.

Naruto opened his mouth to pry but Haruno changed the subject before he could.

"So Shikamaru, got anything yet?" she asked the boy in front of her.

He sighed heavily.

"Nothing really good…"he muttered.

"…how about you use the person who got you to start cloud watching, if there is one. I'd say they've influenced you a great deal." Haruno told him.

Shikamaru stroked his chin as he thought over the idea.

"That could work…" he muttered.

Chouji and Naruto jumped in then and started giving him more ideas and Haruno took the opportunity to slip away from the table and head for the supply room.

"Haruno, decided already?" Genma asked her as she approached his desk that was beside the supply closet.

"Yes…on all three actually." She responded.

Genma frowned slightly as he stopped chewing on his toothpick momentarily.

"Really? All three? Have you thought them through?" he asked.

She nodded.

"I even know how I want to portray them." She added with a slight smirk.

Genma blinked in surprise then smirked slightly as well.

"To be expected I guess. Help yourself to the supply room." He told her.

She nodded and walked past his desk and into the side room.

She looked around for a moment before finding what she'd been looking for. A large set of pens with various nibs and a large bottle of black ink. She also selected a few paintbrushes. Finally she grabbed a large sheet of thick white paper that was designed for water color but would be perfect for what she intended to do with the ink.

She stepped back out of the room and Genma eyed her supplies curiously but said nothing as she stepped past him and made her way to the empty half of the table she was sharing with Shikamaru, Naruto and Chouji. The three were still in deep debate and didn't notice her setting up her supplies slightly further down the table.

She set the sheet down in front of her and opened the pen set, setting it on her right side. Then she looked pensively at the blank page, trying to decide where to start.

She didn't want to sketch first because it would be impossible to get rid of the pencil afterwards and she wanted it to be completely black. She could start with ink but she wasn't that confident in her drawing skills and so would rather not.

She frowned slightly. Maybe charcoal…and then she could smudge it too…she nodded to herself then stood up again and went back to the supply room, returning with several sticks of charcoal of various sizes as well as a moldable eraser and set to work, sketching the face that was forever burned into her mind. She started with his eyes…those cold, cruel, twisted eyes…

(…)

Kakashi slouched in his chair at his desk in his classroom. He was feeling lazy today and so had given the class "study group time" or as he liked to call it "slack off time". Slack off for him at any rate. He was always kind enough to make sure that the students had plenty of work to do that was to be handed in to be graded by him for the next day.

Then he collected them…and slacked off in his correcting. Then he'd tell them all it was a formative exercise as opposed to a summative one and they would bitch and he would laugh at them for falling into his trap yet again.

For some reason, he really enjoyed playing with the minds of his students.

But seeing as it was the beginning of the year, he'd probably go easy on them and correct the work in class with them tomorrow.

He grimaced behind his mask at the thought; he hated correcting.

He turned to gaze around the class, the students all seemed to be, if not working, at least sufficiently distracted for them to not be paying attention to him.

He smirked ever so slightly as he slipped his hand surreptitiously into the file drawer of his desk and carefully pulled out a semi-thick, softer cover, bright orange novel.  He swiveled his chair slowly, still watching the class until he had his back almost completely to them. He slouched a little more in the chair lifting one of his legs so that the ankle rested on the other leg's knee then flipped open the well worn book to the bookmark and started reading contentedly, a lazy smile spreading behind his mask.

Neji frowned at him from the back of the class then curled his lip in disgust.

"What is it?" Tenten asked him from her seat beside him.

"That perv of a teacher is reading his porn book in class again." Neji informed her.

"Really?" Tenten asked incredulously as she turned quickly to stare at their teacher. He was almost turned completely from the class, but not turned enough; she could still see the telltale orange corner of the book. She blushed slightly and giggled. They had the best teacher.

Kakashi twitched at the sound of giggles but chose to ignore it, his book was reaching a really good spot and he didn't feel like stopping yet.

So he continued reading and more and more students spotted him reading and so took it as their cue to goof off behind his back. Finally, the last bell rang and the students practically ran out the door, relishing their freedom.

Kakashi sighed and replaced his bookmark before snapping the book closed, just as happy as his students that he could finally leave.

(…)

Haruno made her way slowly through the halls, unable to push her way as easily through the crowd due to the awkward portfolio case she was carrying that housed the beginning of her drawing.

Now that she had started it, she wanted to keep working on it until it was done. She was always like that, she liked to finish what she started and would work single-mindedly on anything until it was complete. She was just glad she didn't have to work tonight so that she could keep working on it.

Finally she managed to get outside and could break away from the stumbling heard of students that were heading for the city bus stop. She turned and walked around the school, heading towards the track field.

"Haruno, wait up" came a deep voice behind her.

She frowned slightly and turned to see who was addressing her.

"Uchiha? What do you want?" she asked him bluntly as the tall dark haired boy caught up to her.

"I was wondering if you could show me around town a bit. Yesterday you said you would." He reminded her as she started walking again and he fell into step beside her.

She frowned slightly.

"I only said that to save you from the hordes of slavering gold diggers." She admitted honestly.

"I figured that, and thank you by the way. But could you do it anyway? I am new to the area, and we do have some classes together and have that competition thing where we have to work together. And Hatake-sensei did say that getting to know each other was the first step to working as a team…" he said charmingly.

Haruno continued to frown, she couldn't explain it, but something felt off about this.

"Today's bad for me, I've got a lot of work to do. Besides, if you want to work on teamwork, we should get Uzumaki to come too." She responded as she continued to walk.

Sasuke frowned inwardly; she was being a lot less co-operative than he'd expected. Normal girls would be falling all over themselves right now.

"But I want to work on my teamwork with you." He said in a slightly seductive tone as he stepped in front of her and lowered his face closer to hers, giving her a practiced smile.

Haruno blinked, taken aback for a second as she saw someone else in his features but she quickly recovered and raised her eyebrow.

"Tough." She responded as she stepped to the side and walked around him.

Sasuke glared darkly at the spot where she had been. This was not going as planned.

"Are you going home? I'll walk you." He said as he forced the anger from his face, returning to his practiced "make girls melt" expression.

Haruno rolled her eyes slightly before he quite caught up to her.

"That's really not necessary." She muttered, ignoring him.

"I know, I want to though." He said in an engaging tone.

She sighed and stopped walking.

"Look Uchiha---" she started.

"Call me Sasuke." He interrupted.

"Uchiha, listen to me. This is a bad idea." She told him, her tone serious.

"What's a bad idea?" he asked her, keeping up his charming act and moving closer to her.

"I have a boyfriend, one I've been with for a good number of years now. So Back. Off!" she exclaimed as she raised her free hand to push him out of her personal space, ignoring the familiar jolt that jumped up her arm as she touched him. She'd analyze it later.

"I just want to walk you home Sakura." He told her, slightly condescendingly.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I am going to tell you this once, and only once. Do. Not. Call. Me. Sakura." She enunciated carefully. "Or you will regret it." She threatened.

"Now, I do not want you to walk me home so take the hint and leave me alone. I'll see you in class tomorrow." She said as she turned away from him and kept walking, slipping easily through the rip in the chain link fence.

Sasuke watched her go with a calculating look as his mental gears turned. Getting her under his thumb would be more difficult than anticipated.

No matter, he would simply move on to Plan B.

(…)

Haruno moved quickly through the streets, vaguely glad for her red coat that made her passage that much smoother. She soon found herself in front of her apartment building and made her way up to her designated cell, letting herself in and locking the door behind her.

She set down her portfolio and bag beside the door and slipped off her coat, setting it on a hook in the wall then brought her bag and portfolio to the kitchen table.

The table was bare and already clean seeing as it was rarely used, so she set her large piece of paper on the wood and took out her ink set and charcoal.

She stared at the image for a moment. In the center was a large face made of sketchy lines that accentuated the harshness of the character. She picked up her charcoal and added a few more lines to his thick neck, his sadistic smirk. She set the stick aside.

She opened her pen set and picked a finely tipped pen and dipped it in the ink then proceeded to scratch in the real face, the details, over the charcoal shadow.

She loved the paper she was using; it was so thick that the ink was instantly absorbed, leaving thin sharp scratch like lines.

She drew for hours, sometimes changing pens, sometimes picking up the charcoal or smudging what was already there.

The man was clear now though the image still maintained its menace and shadow-like appearance.

This was how she saw him now. A vague phantom that tormented her nightmares and coated her past in blood.

He was heavily shadowed due to the smoky smudged charcoal. He was dark…the whole image was dark. She could only ever remember seeing him in the dark.

His eyes were cold and cruel, his smirk was mocking her…he was still mocking her after all these years. His hand was raised, his fingers taping his chin in that calculating way he always had before he'd moved into action.

She was almost still afraid of the image.

She was drawing around him now, drawing the events he had inspired. Showing the world what he had done to her, how he had ruined her, humiliated her.

She could see it now in the far corner, the hideous scar that ran along her abdomen, the physical manifestation of the thousands of scars he had left in her mind. And there in the other corner, the chains…those burning chains that had chaffed her skin…that had bruised her so badly…those hated chains that he had heated and burned her with, though the scars from the event were somewhere where no one would see them.

And now, the drugs down in this corner…the ones that had filled his eyes with blood. The ones that had given him a bloodlust that not even his employ could cure him off and that had been so often needed to be finally quenched on her.

And there…the blood…the satisfying blood…The beautiful blood that had signaled her triumph…she hadn't needed his drugs to bring it out in her…she had done it of her own volition.

A small, twisted smile mutilated her lips as she stared at him, her pen scratching away. It was the only sound in the apartment for hours. Her persistent slicing at him, slowly carving him…

The door opened behind her and she snapped her head up from the drawing, the scratching ceased. The frenzy within her subsided as her concentration broke.

The overhead light switched on and only then did she notice that the room had turned pitch black.

"What are you doing in the dark?" his voice, dark as the night, questioned her.

She turned to look at him.

He was frowning slightly at her.

"I was working…I didn't notice the light." She answered him.

His frown deepened as he slipped off his black coat, hanging it beside her red one and moved towards her.

"What are you working on?" he asked her, no hint of actual concern or curiosity in his voice.

"Just a something for my art class…" she said, her eyes following him as he moved closer.

She now found herself looking up at him as he stood in front of her.

He moved closer, leaning over her shoulder to see the project that had so entranced her. She relished the waves of heat his body generated and that smell that was uniquely his that always enveloped her when he was close.

"Its just lines." He told her as he stared at it.

She turned to look at it as well.

"Yes…its just lines." She repeated a small smile curving her lips.

He wasn't there. It was just lines.

"Is it finished?" he asked her then.

"I don't know…I guess so…I can't think of anything else to add." She answered, staring at the once white page that had been mutilated with black ink and marred by black charcoal.

"Its missing something." He told her.

She frowned.

He bit his thumb, breaking the skin and held it over the drawing. The crimson dripped down and splashed on it.

She stared in fascination at the splatter.

He brought his thumb to his mouth, sucking on it until the bleeding stopped.

"I'm tired." He said simply then as he turned and walked away from her, heading towards her bedroom.

She stared at the drawing, her eyes roaming over its surface. In her perusal, her peripheral vision spotted the paintbrushes she'd brought.

 She tilted her head to the side.

(…)

Sasuke stared at his computer screen. He had her file spread out before him

Haruno Sakura.

Born: March 28th

Age: 17

Mother: deceased, suicide

Father: deceased, murder, beaten to death with a steel pipe, believed to be gang related

Medical Records: was in the hospital for treatment of a severe wound to her abdomen when she was 13. Was brought in by a member of the ANBU gang.

Sasuke was willing to bet that the last time anyone had seen her was right before she'd sustained that injury.

What intrigued him were her seemingly long-standing relations with gangs. ANBU then, Akatsuki now. The odd thing was that she herself had no criminal record. She was however on the Police Blacklist and apparently was on the infamous Zabuza's recruit listing.

What was it about her that interested these people?

That's what he intended to find out.

(…)

Haruno slumped on her desk in the back of her first class the next morning. She was exhausted…She'd worked non-stop until Itachi had returned home which had been at 2am. And then she had stayed up later to finish her project.

She sighed softly to herself; her inner self was muttering vague obscenities to her now.

It wasn't even like the project was due today; she technically had until the end of the semester to complete it. But she just couldn't bring herself to stop once she'd started. She had just been so into it.

But she was paying for it now.

She'd deliberately chosen a seat in the back today, hoping to avoid any kind of confrontation with Kakashi and maybe catch up on some sleep before training next period. She propped up a book in front of her, obscuring her even more to the front of the class and rested her head on her folded arms, her eyes closing almost instantly.

Kakashi frowned slightly at the sight of Sakura asleep in his classroom. He had half a mind to go over there and wake her up. But then he remembered that she had training with him afterwards and a slightly sadistic smirk spread across his lips.

Let her sleep now, he'd get his retribution soon enough.

Naruto yawned widely before setting his chin in his hand as his elbow rested on his desk. Early morning classes sucked…hell, anything that had him waking up before noon sucked.

He looked to his side and saw that Haruno was fast asleep. He looked to the front of his class at his sensei; Hatake was ignoring the fact that she was asleep.

He smiled slightly to himself and set about following Haruno's example. He set up his book and crossed his arms over his desk, snuggling into them gratefully as his eyes dropped contentedly shut.

Kakashi scanned the class again as he continued in his lecture about Shakespearian sonnets only to pause in shock as he spotted Naruto sleeping in the back of the class.

"NARUTO!" he said loudly.

The blonde jumped suddenly having been shocked awake.

"Seeing as you were obviously following along in your book…" he told the student pointedly, Naruto flushed slightly. "Continue with the reading." He told him in his trademark nonchalant voice.

The color drained from Naruto's face as he grabbed his book and scanned the page desperately.

"Sure…Hatake-sensei…" He said, trying to hide his distress and trying to buy time.

Kakashi smirked slightly behind his mask as he watched the blonde squirm.

"page 218, line 12" came a whispered voice beside him.

"Thanks" Naruto quickly whispered back as he flipped to the correct page quickly and found the line and started to read.

Hinata flushed brightly beside him as she buried her nose back in her book. Naruto had just spoken to her! Her heart was beating madly.

 Sasuke rolled his eyes from his seat on the other side of Hinata. He just wanted this class to be over.

(…)

Eventually the class bell rang loudly, waking Haruno up, and signaling the class change.

Haruno, Naruto and Sasuke all stayed in their seats as the rest of the students filled gratefully out of the room.

Finally, only the members of team 7 and their "trainer" remained.

Kakashi scanned their bored faces briefly the sighed inaudibly. Next time he was going to ask Gai what he wanted before volunteering. He did not enjoy spending his prep time teaching gym because Gai was too lazy to teach his classes himself.

But then he smirked evilly behind his mask. Seeing as he couldn't take it out on Gai, he would make sure these students regretted ever deciding to take gym.

"So today…I said we'd train right?" he asked vaguely, more speaking to himself than the other three occupants of the room.

Haruno rolled her eyes.

"Yup! Training starts today!" Naruto answered him energetically, excited at the prospect of physical activity.

Sasuke slouched slightly in his chair.

"Ok…well, seeing as everyone else will be training here, we're going to train somewhere else." Their sensei told them.

"Follow me." He ordered as he stopped leaning against his desk and headed out the door.

The three other members of the team frowned slightly then scrambled to get their things and followed the older man through the halls then out to the staff parking lot.

He stopped in front of a black jeep and unlocked the front door then reached back to unlock the door behind his then leaned across the seats to get the locks on the other side of the vehicle.

"Get in." he said finally as he settled himself in the driver's seat.

"Shotgun!" Haruno spoke suddenly before rushing around to the other side of the car.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed indignantly as her rushed after her only to reach that side of the car as she slammed the front passenger door closed his face and then stuck her tongue out at him from the front seat.

Naruto glared good-naturedly before grudgingly climbing into the seat behind her. Sasuke had already settled into the seat behind Kakashi.

"So Sensei, where are we going?" Naruto asked as Kakashi started the car and backed out of his parking space.

"You'll see" Kakashi answered vaguely.

Naruto frowned slightly as he sat back and started to speculate out loud on where they could possibly be going to train.

Haruno shot a wary glance at their sensei; she wasn't a big fan of getting into a car when their destination was kept secret.

"Don't worry, you know the place well." Kakashi muttered in a low voice so that only she could hear.

Her frown deepened slightly but then it cliqued in her mind where he meant so she relaxed and enjoyed the front seat, settling in for the long drive.

Sasuke watched the exchange in the front seat but seeing as he couldn't hear what had been said over Naruto's chattering he followed Haruno's example and settled as comfortably as possible in the rather cramped back seat and set his sunglasses over his eyes to hide their calculating look as he decided to take advantage of the drive to scheme about his quest.

The drive passed uneventfully, the silence broken only by the low radio playing classic rock music and Naruto's chatter that alternated between guessing possible locations and asking for hints about the location. Kakashi's responses remained non-committal and vague.

Haruno watched calmly out the window as the familiar city flew by, the intensity of its constructs steadily diminishing as they drove further and further from the downtown core where the school was located.

Sasuke watched through his smoky lenses, enjoying how the shadows became intensified and the colors became muted. He frowned slightly when they found themselves driving out of the city completely and where now traveling through the surrounding countryside.

Finally, as the roads turned from paved to dirt, Naruto snapped.

"Alright! I give up; I have no idea where we're going. But are we at least almost there yet? We've been driving for 40 minutes now! How are we going to manage to get any training done and still make it back in time for the afternoon classes?" the blonde exclaimed, exasperation lacing his energetic tone.

"Don't worry about your classes, I already got you guys excused from them. And yes, as a matter of fact, we are just about there." Kakashi answered him as he turned up a half overgrown side road from the dirt road they'd been driving on.

A few moments later he slowed the car to a stop on the edges of a largish field surrounded by several large trees.

"No one's been here in a while." Haruno noticed out loud as she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the car, taking her small gym bag with her.

The other three followed suit and followed her towards a small wooden building that was a few paces from the parked car.

A few moments later, the four of them were all sitting in a circle in the center of the clearing wearing variations of track pants and t-shirts. Kakashi was still wearing his headband that covered one of his eyes and had changed his turtleneck shirt for a sleeveless shirt and an independent mask that covered his face. However, the tattoos on his arms were clear.

Naruto frowned slightly, the markings were vaguely familiar to him but he couldn't quite place them so he shrugged it off.

"So sensei…what are we going to do for training?" Naruto asked their teacher.

Kakashi snapped out of the daze he's slipped into as he'd looked over the familiar surroundings.

"Easy." He began as he reached into his pocket and pulled out two small bells tied to red strings.

"Today, I'm going to test you. Your goal is going to be to get one of these bells from me." He told the three of them.

Haruno smiled slightly to herself as she remembered the last time she'd gone through this exercise.

Naruto frowned and cocked his head to the side. "We need to get a bell from you? How?" he asked, confused by the vague task.

"You need to take one from me." He answered. "By fighting with me."

"One at a time?" Naruto asked then.

"No, all three of you will be trying to get one at the same time." Kakashi continued.

"But there are only two bells." Sasuke noticed with a slight frown.

"Indeed. That means one of you will definitely fail." Kakashi responded.

"What happens if you get a bell?" Naruto asked.

"You get lunch." Kakashi answered.

Sasuke glared slightly from behind his sunglasses. So that was why he had wanted them to skip breakfast…

"What happens if you fail?" Naruto asked then.

"See those posts over there…" Kakashi began pointing to three large posts beside the cabin where they had changed.

Naruto frowned. "Yeah…" he said cautiously.

"If you lose, you get tied to one of those for the rest of the day and get to watch the others eat lunch." Kakashi said, smiling behind his mask.

Naruto gulped.

"Why are there three posts…?" Naruto asked almost reluctantly.

"Because it's quite possible that none of you will get a bell and then you'll all get tied up and get to watch me eat lunch." Kakashi answered. Sasuke would have bet good money he heard a sadistic lilt to their sensei's voice.

"So, to get food, we need to get a bell." Naruto stated.

Kakashi nodded.

"You're pretty confident thinking you can take on all three of us." Sasuke pointed out.

Kakashi arched and eyebrow at him.

Haruno laughed.

"Oh, I would be sorely disappointed in him if he couldn't." She told Sasuke before Kakashi got the chance to respond.

"So, lets get started." Haruno continued as she jumped to her feet and stretched a bit and bounced around a little to warm up.

The other three followed suit.

"Its about 11 o'clock now. You guys have until noon to get a bell. And allow me to assure you, come at me with everything you've got because there is no way you will get a bell without a killer intent." Kakashi said, vaguely ominous as he tied the bells to one of the belt loops of his calf length shorts.

"I also recommend trying to take me by surprise. Start." He finished.

Instantly the three vanished.

_{Well, this is a good start…}_ Kakashi mused to himself as he turned to inspect the field around him to see if any where in clear sight.

And there was Naruto, standing five feet in front of him with his large arms crossed across his broad chest.

Haruno smothered her laugh at Kakashi's stunned expression from her observation spot under a particularly leafy bush.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Kakashi asked, vaguely wondering if the blonde kid had somehow misunderstood his explanations.

"I'm not big on the sneakiness thing. I prefer to tackle things head on." He said with his trademark foxy grin.

Kakashi felt a small smile tug at his lips; he liked the kid's frankness.

"Alright then, come on." The silver haired man said in his typical nonchalant tone as his stance remained aloof and slightly slouched.

Naruto narrowed his electric blue eyes slightly; Hatake-sensei wasn't taking him seriously.

Naruto crouched, ready to charge.

Kakashi ignored him and reached into his pocket.

Naruto tensed.

Kakashi pulled out a book with a bright orange cover and flipped it open.

Sasuke caught himself before he face vaulted due to the title of the book, preventing what would have been a sorely embarrassing fall from the tree he was crouched in.

Haruno rolled her eyes. _{Some things just never change…}_

Naruto's face flushed in anger as fire-like rage burned through his veins and he pounced, springing from his crouched position and charging at the older man.

Kakashi dodged him easily, eyes never leaving his book.

Naruto landed in another crouch, turned and sprung again, raising his leg in a high kick, that Kakashi blocked, followed by a low kick from the other side, using his spin to add force to it, again Kakashi blocked. Naruto moved in with his fist, aiming his powerful punch to his sensei's jaw. Kakashi blocked and took advantage of Naruto's now exposed midsection, landing a hard kick that sent the blonde boy flying into the foliage at the edge of the clearing.

Naruto landed roughly but quickly jumped to his feet about to charge forward again but something caught his ankle and pulled him down to the ground.

Haruno winked at him as she held him in the underbrush beside her.

"Watch." She whispered and the pair turned their eyes back to the clearing in time to see Kakashi dodge a volley of kunai.

(…)

Sasuke smirked at the opening. It was so basic. He mercilessly exploited it, throwing half a dozen kunai at their sensei.

They all hit their target but unfortunately the target had been switched and instead of being embedded in Kakashi's body, they were embedded in a stray log.

Sasuke's eyes went wide; it had been a trap. His position was now exposed. He ran swiftly swinging through the trees, jumping from branch to branch, finally he descended to the ground and crouched, searching the area.

"Found you." Came a voice from behind him. He spun quickly, moving in time to dodge the kunai being thrown back at him. Kakashi stood a few feet away from him, leaning against a tree, spinning a kunai on the index finger of his right hand as he held his book open with his left.

The bells were on his right side.

The dark haired boy reached into the pouch strapped to his leg and pulled out two kunai. Holding one in each hand so that the blade followed along his arm, he charged forward. Kakashi blocked one blade with his own, the other with his book. Sasuke pushed against him trying to break his sensei's hold on the blade and book. Kakashi smacked his forehead against Sasuke's, dazing the boy slightly and forcing him back.

(…)

Haruno crouched with Naruto, both well hidden on the outskirts of the small clearing that was acting as an arena for Sasuke and Kakashi's knife fight.

"Wait for it, when Kakashi has his back to us, you're going to charge in at him. Be loud, we want him to know you're there and turn towards you to block. I recommend a kunai stab from above. Now, Sasuke will react by being annoyed at first and so might tell you to stay out of it or might attack you or might just be stunned for a minute before taking advantage of the situation. So, watch yourself, it'll be hard for you to take on both Kakashi-kun and the Uchiha kid. If Sasuke attacks you though, Kakashi will go after him so you don't need to worry about that." Haruno whispered quickly to him.

"What about you?" Naruto whispered back.

"Don't worry about me, it'll be over before you know it." She whispered back, a half smile curving her lips and a mischievous gleam in her eyes. This new move of hers was going to throw Kakashi through a total loop.

"Alright, they're moving this way, get ready!" she whispered. Naruto nodded. She patted his shoulder briefly and disappeared.

(…)

Sasuke blinked quickly, attempting to get the sweat out of his eyes as he continued fighting with Kakashi. The book had long been discarded and both were now using only kunai.

Both had a few minor lacerations and were breathing slightly heavier.

They were both moving intensely, and Sasuke was hard pressed to remember that his goal was to take a bell and not defeat this man.

Kakashi was on the defensive, slowly being forced backwards.

All of a sudden a loud yell came from behind him and Kakashi spun fast enough to block the kunai Naruto had been stabbing downwards but seeing as Naruto was descending from a jump, his entire body weight was being pushed against Kakashi's kunai.

Sasuke blinked slightly then narrowed his eyes in annoyance; this was his fight and that loud blonde had no right to interfere.

He'd been about to attack him when he remembered that this wasn't a fight, this was just to get the bells, and with Kakashi twisted to defend against Naruto, his right side was vulnerable.

Sasuke smirked slightly and lunged in, ignoring the fluttering of leaves in his peripheral vision. Kunai outstretched, he sliced at the cords of the bells. His kunai passed right through but the rope didn't cut. Surprised, he didn't catch his lunge in time and tumbled to the ground, he caught himself in a summersault and looked up only to see that he was alone in the clearing.

"What the…" he muttered out loud, his eyes narrowing as blood filled his vision, activating his sharingan.

His blood limit pierced through the genjutsu that had been used on him in time to see himself still fighting with Kakashi and Naruto.

Only, obviously, that wasn't him. He stared at it more intensely, the black teardrop deposits in his eyes beginning to spin as his sharingan detangled the illusions that had been cast. The him fighting Kakashi with Naruto was a shadow clone that had been transformed. Haruno's shadow clone.

He scanned the surrounding area, looking for the girl with the pink hair and found her still crouched and well hidden beneath the underbrush on the other side of the small clearing, she was waiting for the right opportunity to rush Kakashi, probably by running through her shadow clone, and grab the bells.

He frowned; this strategy was familiar to him. When had he seen it before?

His eyes narrowed as a foggy image began to overlap with the one before him. They had been training with their father…the clone that looked like him had looked like…

His lip curled into a snarl.

Itachi.

(…)

Suddenly Haruno found the opening she'd been looking for and sprang forward, bursting right through the shadow clone, causing it to explode into smoke that obscured both Kakashi and Naruto's vision seeing as it was in such close proximity.

Kakashi felt a slight tug at his waist and turned from Naruto, following the strength of the pull, in time to see Haruno skid to a halt with a large grin on her face and both bells dangling from her right fingers.

Naruto cheered loudly.

"Alright Haruno-chan! That was awesome!"

Kakashi stared at her, stupefaction clear in his only visible eye.

She batted her eyes innocently but the smirk on her lips ruined the attempt at an innocent expression.

"Thanks for the help Naruto." She said as she tossed a bell at him.

The blonde grinned.

"You too Uchiha, couldn't have done it without you." She said, turning to him and tossing the other bell to him.

She froze when she made eye contact, taken aback by not only his shocking Sharingan eyes but also at the raw anger and maybe even hatred within them.

That's when Sasuke realized he still had his sharingan activated. He blinked quickly and looked away as his vision quickly returning to normal.

When his eyes were completely cleared he looked at the bell he'd caught then looked back at her.

"You realize you've no bell for yourself now." He said casually.

"I figured I didn't really earn one seeing as I used the pair of you to get them. Besides, I got them and that's enough bragging rights." She responded, turning her smirk back to Kakashi.

The older man laughed slightly to himself and shook his head lightly.

"Good job." He told her. "You even made the time limit." He told her.

She grinned.

"Oy sensei, about that lunch…" Naruto said pointedly.

"Heh…right. They're in the car." He answered and the four made their way back through the trees and across the clearing.

Lunch was peaceful and as it turned out, Haruno had brought her own lunch and so she cheated and ate that.

They finished eating and lounged around for a while.

Sasuke was internally seething over the fact that Itachi had obviously taught one of his personalized strategies to Haruno but had refused to teach it to him.

Kakashi was feeling a bit melancholic, still taken aback by the fact that he didn't know the extent of his little Sakura-chan's abilities anymore. And that she had progressed without his help.

Haruno was half relishing having defeated Kakashi while half making a list of questions to ask Itachi in regards to the sharingan and more specifically about Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto was enjoying the sunshine and the fact that he wasn't sitting in his boring old history class, as he normally would be at this point in the day.

Expectedly though, Naruto was the first to lose interest in his inner thoughts.

"So what now Hatake-sensei?" the energetic blonde asked as he sat up from his reclining position.

"Next? Well, I figured that since the point of this competition is to defeat the other teams, we'd train by holding sparring matches with the other teams." He answered.

"Sparring?" Haruno asked, her interest picked at the idea of being allowed to kick the asses of the people who pissed her off.

Kakashi nodded. "Today was to test the level of your abilities and judge whether or not you were ready to fight the other teams. I think you are and so there's really no need for any one-on-one training with me. So, on monday, you spar with team 10." He answered.

"Team 10…isn't that Shikamaru and Chouji's team?" Naruto asked Haruno.

A sadistic smile spread across her lips. "Ino's team." She stated with relish. Finally she could beat that girl down a few pegs.

"Yes, those would be the members…" Kakashi said, a little wary of Haruno's smile.

Sasuke didn't react.

"What will we be doing until Monday?" the dark haired boy asked, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses again.

"Researching the opponent and working on teamwork seeing as you'll be taking on all three members of the other team together. And according to their sensei Asuma, their parents all go way back in the police force and so have a bunch of group formations that now also work between their kids seeing as their parents passed on the same techniques they'd used together. So as a team, their tight." Kakashi told them.

Naruto and Haruno nodded.

"Well, Shikamaru's ability is that he can trap people with his shadow…" Naruto said.

"And Chouji has his super-size jutsu that make him quite large and difficult to deal with." Haruno added.

Kakashi nodded. "So that's two abilities we know and can train for, anyone know anything about Ino?" he asked.

"Yeah, she can do a mind-body-switch jutsu that allow her to take over the body of her opponent. It's got a huge weakness though, her body becomes totally vulnerable."  Sasuke told them, still lying on his back and staring at the sky.

"How do you know that?" Naruto asked him.

"On the first day she cornered me into eating lunch with her and she bragged about it." He answered.

Haruno laughed at him.

"The Barbie table? That sucks." She said between laughs.

Sasuke tched. "Its your fault I had to. You disappeared after gym."

"Oh that's right, sorry. I'd forgotten I'd volunteered to be your babysitter. Oh well, worked out for the best, you got us some inside information on her." Haruno said nonchalantly. 

"So now we have a general idea of ability, let's work on countering." Kakashi said, redirecting the conversation to a productive one.

"Well, Shika's shadow has a limit of how far it can stretch but he can use surrounding shadows to elongate it. To counter, it would be best to fight him in an open field at noon when his shadow is at its shortest." Haruno said.

"For Chouji, when he's in his "meat tank" thing, he only really moves in straight line so dodging is easy enough." Naruto added.

"For Ino's technique to work, the target has to be stationary. So as long as you can move out of the way, it won't hit you. Also, if it misses, she can't return to her own body right away so she's incredibly vulnerable." Sasuke finished.

"So their strategy is probably to distract the opponent by using Chouji's technique first and forcing the opponent to move within range for Shikamaru. Shikamaru would then trap them and Ino would take one hostage with her technique, forcing the opponent to surrender." Kakashi stated.

The other three nodded, that sounded plausible.

"So how would we counter that?" Kakashi asked them.

And the next hour was spend in a strategy session before finally they headed back to the school, arriving in time for the last ten minutes of class. Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi blew the classes off all together but Haruno headed to the art room.

(…)

"Ah Haruno, nice of you to join us." Genma said sarcastically as she entered the classroom.

"Sorry I'm late sensei, I was under the impression that Hatake-sensei had explained to my afternoon classes that I would be absent." She responded as she headed to his desk, still lugging her portfolio.

"He did." Genma answered her around his long toothpick.

Haruno decided to just drop it.

"So, what have you got for me?" Genma asked her then, changing the subject as he eyed her portfolio.

"I've got supplies to return and my first work to hand in." She answered.

"Done already? Well, let's see it then." He said, only briefly surprised that she had already completed it. She was always fast with assignments.

She unzipped the edges of the portfolio and pulled out the large sheet of thick paper, placing it on his neat desk.

Genma studied it for a long moment, appreciating her technique. The lines were sharp and broken. The image was distorted from this close up; it would only achieve clarity from distance. The ink was pure black and the smudged charcoal underneath added to the distortion of the image but also to its depth. But what intrigued him where the dark, dark red splatters that marred its surface, looking almost like lacerations across it.

"Is this blood?" he asked her tilting his head slightly as he looked at a particularly long spattering that stretched across what would be the eye of the image.

She shoved her hand deeper into her pocket, hiding the thick band-aid that encircled her left thumb, and didn't answer.

He looked at her hard for a moment then sighed and let it go.

"May I ask who it is?" he asked her then, moving his eyes back to the drawing.

"Its…someone who was too close to me for comfort." She answered ambiguously.

Genma nodded.

"Alright. Hang it on the board in the hall." He told her.

She hesitated.

"I'd rather not hang it…" she told him honestly.

He sighed.

"I understand that Haruno, but I would really appreciate it if you would. You don't have to put your name on it, or explain it at all. But please hang it." Genma half pleaded with her.

She was one of his most talented students and when the school board saw talent, they invested money in the program and so his students got new materials and better supplies.

She bit her lip then nodded.

"But I'm not signing it." She said.

"Do you want to frame it before you hang it?" he asked her then.

She considered for a moment.

"No, I prefer it raw and open." She answered.

Her sensei nodded again and handed her a box of thumbtacks.

She took them and took the drawing and headed into the hall to post it on the art room's designated bulletin board.

She hung it in the center, not caring that the tacks would ruin the corners of the paper. It was suiting.

The board around it was still bare. It was suiting as well.

She stared at it for a long time. Then she stared at the characters of her name that had been discreetly scratched into the lower right corner last night when she had finished it. They blended into the scratches that made up the pile of blood…no one would find it.

She heard steps at the other end of the hall but ignored them as she continued to study the drawing.

Itachi had been right; the blood spatters had perfected it. It was odd but he always seemed to know what her artwork was missing.

The steps at the other end of the hall paused and something dropped to the floor.

She turned and stared back at the stunned Kakashi.

"Haruno-sama…" he muttered low, staring past her, eyes glued to the image of his former boss.

Haruno walked towards him and grasped his hand.

"Look closer." She said, pulling him towards the drawing until they were standing directly in front of it.

"Its not him. Its just lines. Lines have no power." She told him, still holding onto his hand as she explained it to him.

He looked at it impassively for a long moment.

"Someone might recognize him." He told her.

"If they do, they won't say anything. No one would admit to knowing his face." She responded.

The last bell rang before he could say anything more and she quickly dropped her hold on his hand, breaking their connection.

"I'll see you in class tomorrow." She said lightly as she left him in the hall and returned to the art class to return her supplies and gather her things to leave.

Kakashi watched her disappear behind the door, lost in the flood of students that were flowing out of the room.

He shook his head slightly, clearing it, and walked back down the hall to pick up his briefcase and the papers he had dropped.

He looked back at the image from this distance. It was just lines, he knew, but from here it looked eerily real. He suppressed his shudder and walked away.


	4. Sakura

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.

Author's notes: Well, I'm still not done with the editing of the first three chapters but I finished the 4th…so I figured I'd just post the full version chapter 4 with the original chapters 1-3 so as to at least give you guys the continuation of the story seeing as it took me so long to write it. Thanks to everyone who have reviewed the story and helped me out with it, this chapter is going to leave you all with a lot of questions but I promise that they'll all get answered as the story goes on. Hope you enjoy

(…)

Hindsight's 20/20: Chapter 4

By: Tea Leaf / Banana Soap

(…)

Haruno slouched in the thin window frame of one of the stained windows of her apartment. The ledge she sat on was thin and the paint was peeling but the wood was holding. Her back leaned against the frame, her shoulder rested against the window itself, and the leg on the windowsill was raised and bent at the knee, the foot resting on the ledge. A thick, slightly tattered sketchbook rested on her raised knee as her right hand sketched idly.

Her heavy eyelids hung over her faded green eyes; slight smudges under her eyes emphasized the pallor of her skin. Her legs were sore from standing for the past nine hours and running around the coffee shop. She was exhausted.

Her vision was foggy, unfocused, allowing her vague lines to blur together. She blinked to clear them and stared at the rough outline of a crouched man. She sighed and ripped out the page, crumpling it in her hands and tossing it into the wastebasket beside her. Try as she might, she kept messing up.

She leaned her head back against the window frame and closed her eyes briefly, relishing the fact that she was momentarily one step closer to rest. With effort, she pried her lids apart again and stared past the discolored glass separating her from the night and tried to distinguish a star or two from within the blazing city lights and obscuring smog. Even the sky was filthy.

She hated this place. But soon she would be able to leave; she could feel it in her bones. Her bank account had slowly been swelling over the years of backbreaking labor and her diploma was almost in her grasp. Just this one last year and she'd be long gone. They would be long gone.

And they could finally start over.

She heard the lock of the door shift and turned her head to watch the doorknob turn before the crooked plank swung inward.

"You're home early…" she remarked softly as she recognized Itachi's dark form in the doorway.

"Work was easier than anticipated tonight." He answered vaguely. For which she was vaguely grateful. She'd decided a while ago that she didn't want to be privy to the details of gang business anymore.

He moved slowly, his movements as tired as she felt. Languidly, the long katana that had been strapped to his back was detached and set to lean against the doorframe. The long coat was next, the leather lazily releasing its grip on his hard shoulders, before being hung on a hook beside the door near her similar coat.

"Did it go well?" She asked as she watched him move to the old refrigerator in her kitchen.

"Yes." He answered simply, as he pulled open the door by its only half attached handle. She studied him in the fridge's flickering light.

His one good eye was dark black again, proof that he'd let his guard down as he always had with her. There were deep lines panning out over his cheeks, testament to a lack of sleep that he would never be able to recover from. His dark hair was tied loosely at the back of his neck. Several stray strands had fallen from it and hung in disarray around his face, shadowing it even more than the faulty lighting. The long red scar that ran down the left side of his face looked black.

"What are you working on?" he asked her, not looking at her as he pulled out a carton of milk and set it on the grungy but clean counter.

"My next art project…but its just not working." She answered with a sigh as she looked down at her blank page.

"What are you drawing?" he asked as he pulled a chair up to the windowsill and sat on it, staring at her intently and sipping his glass of milk.

"Someone I used to know…but I'm having trouble remembering them." She admitted, her eyes landing on the full wastebasket on the ground beside her.

"Do you still see them?" he asked her in a dispassionate tone, his eye having never left her face.

"Sort of…" she answered evasively.

"Then ask them to model for you." He stated simply as he finished off his glass of milk.

She blinked in surprise at him as he stood and walked slowly back over to the kitchen, setting his empty glass in the chipped sink.

"You think so?" she questioned as she swung her leg off the ledge and closed her sketchbook.

"Might as well." He answered her over his shoulder as he headed towards her bedroom.

"Its late. Tomorrow's Monday." He reminded her.

She stood and followed him.

(…)

Mondays were always the hardest, she found. She always felt heavier on a Monday morning, like weights had been set on her stomach and tied to her legs. It always took an extra effort to push herself out of bed for the dawn training lessons Itachi had always insisted on doing with her. This particular Monday was even harder seeing as she had the added dread of asking a favor of someone today. She hated asking favors, they made her feel indebted to people. And if she had debts to pay, she was tied to them, tied to that person, tied to this city, tied to this life.

She groaned and groped slightly for the edge of the bed so as to push her body upwards. A strong calloused hand grasped her groping one and pulled, helping her up.

Her heavy eyelids finally opened and her hazy gaze focused on Itachi's deep black one. He was watching her intently. Finally his eye softened slightly and his dark eyebrows drew together fractionally. He tried to lay her back down but her other hand reached up and grasped his shirt, holding herself upright.

"You need more sleep. We'll skip training for today." He told her in his deep, monotonous voice.

"No" she said, her voice rough and husky from sleep, as she pushed him back slightly as he subtly tried to bodily force her back down to the lumpy mattress.

"If I lay back down, I won't be able to get up again." She told him, her hands still feebly clutching him for support.

He sighed inaudibly before grasping her hands and helping her to her feet.

She swayed slightly as a sharp pain shot from her left hip and knee and her leg gave out beneath her weight.

Her grip on him tightened as his did the same, pulling her against him and supporting her weight.

"Take the day off from school and sleep." He told her.

"It's not just school, I have work too." She said feebly, her voice still raw.

"I'll tell your boss you're sick." He countered.

She smiled slightly, her boss certainly wouldn't argue with an Akatsuki member.

"But I'm not sick. You know I hate lying." She told him, giving him her rare soft look and smile.

"You will be if you keep this up." He answered, not showing any reaction to her softness if it even affected him at all.

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." She told him, her voice starting to smooth out.

She tested her leg again, carefully setting her weight on the overused and abused limb and biting her cheek against the wave of pain that shot up from her worn joints. She straightened and released her grip on him. He scrutinized her again, holding onto her for a second longer before releasing her with another of his inaudible sighs.

"So what are we doing for training today?" she asked him as he stepped back from her and turned away.

"Physical therapy." He answered flatly.

She smiled softly again.

(…)

The day wore on with Haruno fighting valiantly to stay awake during her classes and trying just as valiantly to hide her limp from her teammates during training with Kakashi second period.

She was pretty sure she fooled Naruto but she had caught Sasuke going easy on her and Kakashi watching her movements intently. Thankfully they had the tack to not mention it.

Finally last period rolled around and she sat at her desk by the window of her art class. The room was still buzzing with comments about the strange poster that had been posted on the art board. The main speculation was what had been used for the splatter marks covering it. At first it was believed to be paint but as time had gone on, the red had steadily gotten darker and darker as it aged and dried out. Now many suspected it to be blood. But why would there be blood on it? The second speculation was of whom the portrait depicted. The rumors centered on it being a shady character from the city's underground due to his sinister look and the blood, but no one knew whom in the underworld and if they did, they kept it to themselves. Lastly, speculation ran on whom the artist was. It was generally assumed that it was the same anonymous artist who had been leaving disturbing and even controversial works of art on the board for the past three years but no one had figured out their identity yet. No one had any idea about it and that was how she liked it.

It was one thing to pour your past, your life, your emotions, your very soul onto a canvas, it was quite another for other people to know it. There were things about her that she preferred to keep buried and hidden from the general public.

Such as who the people who had influenced and shaped her life were.

And so she decidedly ignored the low buzz of the art room as students chatted away as they worked, choosing instead to concentrate on her next project. She stared out the window, her gaze unfocused as she concentrated on the images in her head. Try as she might, she still couldn't quite formulate the image she needed. Page after page in her book were covered in failed sketches. No matter how she tried, they never looked right. It had been too long since she'd allowed herself to watch him for them to be right.

She sighed, finally caving to the inevitable. She needed to look at him. She needed him to model for her. There was just no way around it. And now was as good a time as any to bite the bullet.

She stood from her seat and closed her sketchbook, tucking it under her arm before grabbing her pencil and eraser and stuffing them in her jeans pocket.

"Going somewhere Haruno?" her sensei asked her as she rose.

"I just can't concentrate. I'm going to go for a walk to clear my head." She told him as she walked to the door and left the room, ignoring the curious stares Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji sent her.

Once outside of the classroom, she visibly favored her left leg. She'd abused the joints by working two twelve-hour shifts over the weekend and was paying for it today. The pressure point work Itachi had done on them this morning had helped for a bit but the effects had long since worn off.

She hobbled slowly through the first floor hallways, heading towards the stairs. She passed by the library and saw Tenten, Lee and Neji working at a table together. She didn't know whether to be glad for the opportunity or not. If those three were in the library, it meant that Kakashi had given his last class of the day free study time and so wasn't teaching right now. Which meant that she would be able to catch him alone and ask him to model for her sketch. She was dreading it.

Her already heavy feet suddenly felt heavier and her steps up the stairs were harder than they had been when she'd walked them earlier that day. Finally she reached the second floor and was facing the hall to his classroom. Her heart was pounding. It had been a very long time since she'd spoken with him alone. Was she nervous? She took and deep breath and firmed her resolve, then started walking forward again.

She slowed as she approached the door. Was that…giggling she heard? She frowned and set her sketchbook to lean against the lockers by the class door as she crept closer.

"Hatake-sensei!" came a disgustingly high voice in a teasing tone from inside the class. Haruno's frown deepened even more.

She crept closer to the not quite shut door and cautiously peaked in through the open crack. Her frown blackened into a murderous glare as she saw some stupid blonde bimbo clone of Ino's climb onto Kakashi's chair, straddling the obviously not protesting teacher.

The girl's hands reached up to run teasingly along the edge of upraised sweater that hid his face.

Her vision went red as she lost control of her body.

The door was suddenly shoved open violently and the two in the room looked up in surprise. But her body didn't stop. She slowly prowled into the room. Kakashi was saying something but she couldn't hear him over the blood rushing through her ears. The girl gave her a terrified look that she relished as she reached out and grabbed her by her no doubt prized, brittle, bleached tresses and yanked hard. The girl flew across the room.

Haruno shook out her hand freeing it from the clinging fistful of blonde hair.

A dark smirk spread across her lips as she looked at the cowering girl that huddled weakly at the base of the wall she'd crashed into.

"Run." Came her voice in a cold, cruel tone.

The girl didn't think twice and scrambled out the door, running as fast as her over-exposed legs would take her.

Haruno sneered at her retreating form.

"SAKURA!" She finally heard Kakashi yell as he grabbed her shoulder.

She shrugged him off violently and spun to face him.

He'd been about to say something but froze when he saw the dark look in her eyes. He recognized that look.

She ran her eyes slowly, appraisingly, from his head to his feet and back again.

Slowly she sneered, whether and him or herself, she wasn't sure.

"Why her?" she spat at him.

Kakashi blinked at her, taken aback by the question.

She glared at him contemptuously before spinning on her heal to leave.

As she did, her eyes finally noticed the fistful of hair that lay on the ground beside her. Her vision cleared and her eyes widened slightly. Her breathing quickened as she looked at it then back to Kakashi. He looked nervous, like he expected her to explode at any second.

It had happened again.

She took a step back.

Kakashi frowned.

"Sakura?" he questioned her.

She shook her head slightly.

"No…" she said softly as she took another step back.

"Sakura? Are you all right?" he asked her, taking a step towards her and reaching out to grasp her shoulder.

"Stop calling me that" she said in a small, almost scared voice as she scrambled away from him.

"Sakura" he said again, frustrated by her reactions.

"No!" she exclaimed as she raised her hands to grasp her head.

"Sakura? What's wrong with you?" he asked her, a little harsher than he'd intended as he took another step towards her.

"No!" she cried before tearing out of the classroom. Kakashi tried to follow but she was already flying down the stairs by the time he reached the hall.

He sighed and frowned. Then his gaze fell on the forgotten sketchbook leaning against the lockers.

He picked it up and opened it, his frown deepening as he flipped through a long series of morbid drawings only to clear as he came to the recent sketches.

They were all of him.

(…)

Haruno plowed through her night shift, for once glad for the mind-numbing work. A mind numbing was just was she needed. It was Monday night though and so not nearly as busy as she would have liked it to be. And so she filled her free moments with giving the shop the cleaning of an era, scrubbing the tables and counters until they were raw, scouring the coffee pots until you could finally see through the glass again. She couldn't allow herself to stop for a second. If she stopped than she'd remember that afternoon.

It had been a long time since she'd slipped like that. She's thought she finally had it under control. She'd been wrong.

She scrubbed the counter harder.

Finally the owner came up and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Kid, we're closed. Get lost." He told her brusquely.

Resignedly she tossed her rag back into the basin of the sink she'd been scrubbing.

"Fine." She answered as she pushed past his large body to get into the back room and grab her coat and school bag. Normally she would change out of her uniform before leaving but she couldn't be bothered to tonight.

She left through the front door with a slam and heard the lock slide home behind her as the owner turned his keys from the inside.

She debated her route home. She could take the street but it would take more time and would let her mind wander. Or she could take the alley and get home hopefully before her mind latched onto her lack of control.

She turned away from the streetlights and headed down the damp alleyway between the coffee shop and the dry cleaners beside it. The temperature dropped in the shadows and she loosened her coat a bit, hoping the cold would hold her concentration and occupy her mind.

She was trying so hard to stop her mind from thinking that she didn't sense the presence of the other occupant of the alley.

"Haruno, so good to see you."

She started at the sound of the cold deep voice that seeped out from the shadows of the alleyway.

Her eyes narrowed as her muscles tensed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked suspiciously. She was not in the mood to be harassed by Uchiha Sasuke.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" he asked sarcastically as he tilted his head to the side and gave her a piercing look. The hair on the back of her neck stood on edge.

"What do you want?" she asked cautiously as she subtly shifted so as to be in a better defensive position should she need it.

"What every man seems to want from you." He answered with a fake lightness as he stepped out of the shadows, allowing some of the light from the streetlamps at the end of the alley to hit him.

Haruno resisted the urge to take a step back as his expression became clear. She had seen that look before. She'd seen that intensity, that malice. She'd suffered it for years. She'd immortalized it on paper. Her gut reaction was to run but her mind knew there was no point, he would catch her without even breaking a sweat. She was trapped. She cursed herself for taking the alley even though she knew that even in the street, with him she'd be trapped.

Instead she focused on his words and frowned at them. What did he know about her relationship with men? She'd told him nothing about herself.

He stepped closer again and Haruno fought down her mixed emotions. One part of her was terrified, too busy reliving and reminding her of every event that had transpired after she had seen that look. One part was flustered as she again recognized his features but had yet to allow herself to believe the association her mind chose to make with them. Another part was angry, angry that she'd let her guard down and allowed him to surprise her, and angry that he seemed to think he could intimidate her.

She watched him with her hard eyes, waiting for him to continue, trying to read his intent in his twisted eyes.

"I want your skills." He continued.

She bristled slightly; another asshole wanted her as a weapon.

"As you said Uchiha, a lot of people want that from me and none of them have it. Why the hell would I change my policy now?" she asked him, squaring her shoulders and standing up to his attempt at physical intimidation as he moved closer still and towered over her. Her mind began to put the pieces together. He knew where she worked and when she worked as well as where she lived if he knew this route was a possibility for her. And he knew that she was sought after for unmentioned skills. He'd been investigating her.

He smirked and leaned close to her.

"Because I know the truth about you. I know who you really are and what really happened to you that year you disappeared." He whispered smugly in her ear.

Her eyes widened fractionally as she stiffened.

_What…?_

Sasuke's smirk grew; she was like a deer caught in his headlights. Now was the time to move in for the kill.

"Because…I own you." He whispered again to her ear, unable to keep his smugness from his voice.

For the second time that day, she snapped.

Haruno's eyes suddenly flared as rage flamed through her blood. Her vision swam red.

Before Sasuke could react, her hand was around his neck, crushing his windpipe and slamming him against the brick wall of the alley.

"You think you're so smart don't you?" she mocked.

He gasped to answer but she tightened her grip.

"I don't know what you think you know about me or why but you missed an important piece of information in your hunting. So here's a newsflash for you rookie, if you're going to know anything about me, know this:" she said her face close to his, eyes blazing as her grip remained firm despite his hands trying to pry at it.

"I. Belong. To. No One." She enunciated carefully, making sure he understood.

And with that she hefted her knee, knocking the wind out of him as she connected with his stomach. She let him drop into a curled heap on the filthy concrete that covered the ground.

"Go ahead and tell anyone anything you want. I don't give a flying fuck what they do or don't know about me. It's all irrelevant in the end." She told him coldly as she now towered over him, reversing their earlier position.

And with that she turned and continued her walk down the alley towards her apartment complex, breathing heavily as she tried to calm down and clear her vision.

Sasuke saw red as she left. The red of her coat. The red of his sharingan.

(…)

Haruno pulled off her bandana as she closed and locked her apartment door behind her. She leaned against the crooked and peeling wood as she ran a hand through her chin length pink locks, running her hand roughly against the scar on her forehead, tugging at her scalp slightly.

What the hell had that been about?

She slipped down to the floor, still leaning against the door and rested her elbows on her raised knees.

He seemed to expect her to understand.

She contemplated him. Her eyes kept seeing someone else when she looked at him. If she were to let her vision blur, he became Itachi.

Plus he used the sharingan…

She shook her head; she didn't want to figure this out. She really didn't. She didn't want it to be over already and it would be if Sasuke were who deep down she already knew he was.

There were only three people left in the world that could use the sharingan technique. It was a blood limit, passed down through only one clan. Said clan had been completely wiped out save two people. Itachi and his younger brother whom he'd never named. He'd told her she'd know when she saw him.

The third user was not of the same blood as the clan, his sharingan had been won from Itachi. She knew both Itachi and the one with his left eye.

And then there was Sasuke…who could also use the sharingan.

She dug her hands into her hair again. What a day…

She knew now why Sasuke was here when he had all that money at his disposal. He was here for Itachi. She'd known this would happen, he'd told her a long time ago that his brother would come for his head. He seemed to be anticipating the confrontation. She wasn't. She'd hoped it would never come. She'd hoped they could outrun their pasts before they caught up to them. It seemed she'd been denied.

But why had Sasuke tried to blackmail her? What did she have to do with anything? She'd only even met him two weeks ago…

She growled in frustration and decided she just didn't want to deal with it right now. Honestly she didn't want to deal with it at all. She didn't want to remember the fact that Itachi had murdered his clan. She didn't want to think about his selfish reasons for doing it. She didn't want to think about the role she'd promised Itachi she'd play in it all. She didn't want to think about why she'd promised it at all.

She looked around her apartment. It was dirty. So very dirty. Everything was dirty.

(…)

She heard the latch click hours later and kept scrubbing. It still wasn't clean. Nothing was clean yet. His heavy footsteps sounded on the creaky floor by the door and she figured that he was taking off his coat. The steps moved towards her bedroom where he no doubt noticed her discarded work uniform, school bag and coat. And now the steps let to her.

"Sakura…what are you doing?" came his voice a few moments later from the bathroom door. So similar to the one she'd heard earlier but with completely different intonations.

"It's dirty." She answered, her eyes locked on the stains and cracks of her bathtub as she continued to try and wash them away.

Itachi walked over to her and crouched down beside her before grabbing her hand away from the rag and inspecting it. The skin was wrinkled from the soapy water as well as raw from the power of the cleaner she was using. The hand was chaffed and blistered, even bleeding in a few spots, testament to its abuse.

"How long have you been scrubbing?" he asked her even though he knew the answer was hours longer than she should have been.

"Not long." She answered him; she couldn't have been her long seeing as no progress had been made. Everything was still dirty.

He looked through her. She hated when he did that.

"Stop." He told her bluntly.

She pulled her hand away and went back to scrubbing.

"I can't yet, it's not clean." She answered him.

"It will never be clean." He informed her.

"Why?" she asked as her hand dropped the rag, an almost pleading resonance to her tone.

"Because you don't see cleanly." He told her almost gently as he sat down beside her.

She avoided his eyes.

"It's never clean here…I want to leave." She said; ignoring his words and the sting they caused her.

"Then leave." He told her.

"I can't yet." She answered immediately.

"Yes you can." He told her straightforwardly.

"I'm not done school." She argued.

"You can go to school anywhere." He replied monotonously.

"I don't have enough money." She pursued.

"You don't need money, you can make money anywhere as you need it." He shot her down again.

She was silent for a moment. "What are you getting at?" she asked finally, in her apathetic tone.

"That you choose not to leave." He answered.

"I can't leave until it's clean." She admitted softly.

"It will never be clean. No matter where you go, it will never be clean to you." He told her, almost sadly.

"Why not?" she asked again, her voice breaking slightly.

"Because you'll never be clean. Just like I'll never be clean." He told her, now with resignation.

She sniffled softly.

"Our eyes are just too stained to be able to see cleanly." He continued.

"I want to be clean…" she whispered.

"You can't be. Murder stains us forever." He told her softly.

She looked up at him, her eyes glowing as held back tears swam in them.

His fingers reached up and caught the tear that threatened to escape.

"You need to learn to look through the stains." He told her before standing.

"Where are you going?" she asked him as she dropped her rag and stood as well.

"Home." He said simply, heading out before she could think of a response.

Leaving her alone in her dark and dirty apartment.

(…)

She couldn't remember the last time she'd woken up alone. She lay half awake, half asleep, lying on her side with her arm stretched across the empty space of her bed. She was cold.

The sun was slowly rising, breaking through her stained windows. She didn't get up yet. She didn't feel like it.

She didn't know how long she lay there, dazed.

There was a pounding on her door.

She ignored it.

She heard the lock flip but didn't react to it.

"Haruno-chan!" called a familiar voice from the front door.

Steps shuffled around her apartment until he got to her bedroom and looked in.

"You're still in bed?" he asked, plainly shocked. Everyone knew she rose with the sun.

"Are you sick?" he asked, suddenly worried as he rushed to her bedside and sat down, putting his hand to her forehead, pushing away the hair that had fallen across it in her sleep.

She looked up at him, her eyes glazed over. It took her a second to focus on his messy blonde hair and concerned blue eyes.

"No Naruto, I'm not sick." She told him, her voice dry.

"Are you sure?" he asked her lifting his hand from her forehead and pressing it to his own to compare the temperatures.

"I'm sure. What are you doing here Naruto?" She asked him.

"Well, I got worried when you didn't show up for school seeing as you always show up for school." He told her.

"I'm late for school?" she asked, not really showing any concern for it.

"Yeah, you shoulda seen Hatake-sensei's face when he realized you weren't showing up. Looked like he had food poisoning or something." He informed her light-heartedly.

"Really?" she asked idly.

"Serves him right…" she muttered.

Naruto frowned. "Did something happen between you two?" he asked.

"Nothing worth mentioning." She responded as she rolled onto her back.

The silence stretched for a moment.

"So, plan on getting up today or are you going to play hooky?" he asked her playfully.

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Well, I already missed class…might as well just stay in bed." She answered.

"You sure? Want me to tell Hatake that you're sick?" he asked her then, stretching out beside her on the bed.

"Why do you need to tell him anything?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"Because he's waiting downstairs with that freaky Uchiha kid and he'll know I talked to you seeing as I've been up here so long." He informed her easily.

"Oh…why did you all come?" she wondered out loud.

"Well, I was gonna come after practice anyway seeing as I was worried. But Hatake seemed to be worried too, I managed to land three hits on him during sparring so I suggested that maybe he come with me. And then Uchiha decided to tag along too using our match against Shika and Chouji's team this afternoon as an excuse." The blonde told her, his tone implying that he suspected ulterior motives that he didn't approve of on Sasuke's part.

She smiled inwardly at it.

"Was the sparring match today? I'd forgotten…" she mumbled.

"Yup, it's today. But me and Suck-suke can handle it just fine without you. Or we could reschedule, its no problem Haruno-chan." He informed her in his usual friendly tone.

"No…I'm really fine, I just lost track of time." She told him as she finally sat up.

"Are you sure? You legs seemed pretty sore yesterday; maybe you should take the day off…" he trailed off.

She smiled softly.

"Thank you for your concern Naruto, but I was just sore from work yesterday. I slept it off." She told him.

"Ok then, I'll meet you downstairs in a few then." He said as he leapt up onto his feet and disappeared from the room, closing the front door behind him, the key she'd given him two years ago in case of emergencies jangling in his pocket.

With a last look at her empty bed, she stood up.

(…)

The lobby was quiet as she jogged down the last few steps, now dressed in a pair of worn army pants and a white wife-beater type shirt with her red coat pulled overtop.

She didn't look at Kakashi or Sasuke. They both stared at her though or more specifically on the angry red burn scar that marred her forehead. She hadn't covered it with her bandana yet.

"Stop starring at me." She told them pointedly as she finger combed her hair back and tied it with an elastic band.

"Ready to go?" Naruto asked her.

"Of course." She responded as she pulled her bandana across her forehead and secured it behind her head, hiding her scar.

"When and where is the sparring?" she asked in general, walking past the guys and heading towards the door.

"All afternoon and in the field beside the school." Kakashi answered her, taking his behavior cues from her.

"Lunch must be finishing up right about now…" she said as she looked out the now open door at the high placement of the sun.

Sasuke looked at his watch and grunted assertively. Haruno rolled her eyes at his response.

"All the more reason to get back then. I'm in the mood to kick someone's ass anyway." She muttered nonchalantly as she stepped through the door.

"Alright Haruno-chan! Me too! Kinda sucks that its Chouji and Shika we're gonna beat up though." Naruto said boisterously as he caught up with her and grasped her around the shoulders as they walked towards the car.

"But at least I can beat some sense into that damn Yamanaka in the process!" she responded, warming up to the idea.

Naruto grinned.

Kakashi and Sasuke both fought down their glares.

(…)

"Damn…This is so troublesome…" Shikamaru complained as he stared across the football field at Team 7 doing their warm up. He himself was loafing under a tree.

Chouji, who was also loafing with him, nodded his agreement.

"I think Haruno and Naruto will go pretty easy on us but that new kid scares me…" he admitted.

Shikamaru agreed wholeheartedly.

"Oh would you two worms stop complaining! We've gone over the plan countless times! All we have to do is trap one of them and hold them hostage and we'll win. It'll be a sinch, all three of them are too dense to see think with strategy anyway!" Ino yapped at them.

The boys winced at her voice; it was just so grating.

"Alright teams, lets get this started." Kakashi said reluctantly as he moved towards the center of the field.

The two teams stood at their respective goal posts.

"Well…I'd say the rules…but there aren't any really. It's pretty much just a free-for-all-beating-fest…so go nuts. When someone says I quit, stop hitting them and let them leave. Last team left standing wins. And we reserve the right to stop the fight whenever we see fit." He told them in his trademark, lazy way.

Asuma-sensei, team 8's trainer and math teacher, coughed slightly. When put that way, the exercise seemed really pointless. When Gai had explained it to him, it had seemed much more worthwhile…maybe it had been the flash cards…

He took a long drag on his cigarette, half grateful for the excuse to be outside which allowed him to feed his nicotine addiction.

With a reluctant sigh, he pulled the stick away from his lips and flicked it to the ground.

The second it hit they sprang.

Haruno disappeared from the field. Knowing that Shikamaru was a master of tactics, they had decided in training that the best way to gain an advantage would be to watch how the other team worked and devise and break their strategy. She just happened to be the best suited for the job, which was why she was the one doing it.

Sasuke had gone straight for Ino, he seemed to judge her as the weakest seeing as her special techniques were dependent on aid from her companions.

Naruto had gone after Chouji, deciding that his jumbo jutsus would be easier to conquer than Shikamaru's shadows.

Shikamaru was biding his time, much like herself.

Ino was playing purely defensive, she knew because she'd fought the girl often over the past several years. She was leading Sasuke backwards.

She saw a shift in the shadows. Ino was luring him into Shikamaru's range.

Haruno let fly a quick senbon needle, landing it in the shadows right before Sasuke's feet. He read their agreed upon symbol and jumped back just before Shikamaru's shadow could latch onto him. She could hear Ino's curse from across the field.

Good she was angry; she'd start to act impulsively.

Haruno switched her attention back to Naruto. Chouji was chasing him around using his meat tank technique. Naruto was laughing; he was goading him on. Good, that meant Naruto was leading the combat and as she watched, Naruto lead Chouji further and further away from Shikamaru and Ino.

Now was her first opportunity to take Shikamaru out.

She shifter her eyes to him again but landed on nothingness. Her eyes widened and snapped around the field trying to find him.

There, a shift in the shadows of the trees where they ate lunch.

Right where Naruto was moving. She let her senbon fly but she was a second too late, Naruto was trapped.

Chouji abandoned him immediately and rolled towards Ino and Sasuke, who were now sparring viciously with tai-jutsu, Ino keeping her self too close to Sasuke to allow his hands the spare moment they needed to form nin-jutsu and gen-jutsu.

"Shit." She muttered.

Sasuke was so caught up with Ino that he didn't notice Chouji until he was hit. The larger boy crushed the Uchiha, Ino having performed a kawarimi jutsu with a nearby log before she too was crushed.

Now Sasuke was out of commission and Ino was free to use her mind-body-switch.

Haruno cursed again, she needed to take Ino out but where the hell had she disappeared to after her kawarimi?

"See Shika! I told you it would be easy!" her grating voice came from across the field.

_Fuck! She's too far from me!_ Haruno finally spotted her in the key pose of her mind-body-switch near the trees where Shikamaru had been when the battle started.

She moved with the speed of the wind. The last thing Naruto needed was someone inside his head with access to everything which would be exactly what Ino would have.

Ino was smirking in that way that made Haruno's lip curl as she finalized her jutsu and projected her spirit towards her target.

Haruno fell back from the power of the impact.

Naruto blinked in surprise, as Haruno suddenly appeared five feet in front of him only to fall down as if she'd been hit.

(…)

It was black. Who would have expected that stupid blonde's mind to be black?

Ino shrugged, dismissing the thought. She had to threaten this body and get this damn fight over with, finally proving that she was better than damn Haruno Sakura once and for all. And avoid breaking any more nails than she already had sparring with that damn sexy ice block Sasuke-kun.

First things first, she had to open his stupid blue eyes.

She mentally commanded the eyes to open.

The space remained pitch black.

Ino frowned _what the hell…_

"Open your eyes." She commanded, now vocally.

Still nothing happened.

"What the fuck Uzumaki!" She screamed. "I'm in charge here so do as I damn well say and open your eyes!" she commanded again.

"Shut the fuck up Ino." Came a slow, lazy and definitely feminine voice.

Ino started and spun around, searching for the source of the voice.

"Who said that?!" she demanded, trying to hide her sudden fear behind her overbearing attitude.

"I did." Answered the voice. Ino pinpointed it as coming from her left and so she faced that direction.

"And who are you?" she questioned impetuously.

"Oh Ino-chan…I'm disappointed that you don't remember. Well, I guarantee you that I'm not that Uzumaki you were cursing a moment ago." The voice answered, a vague shape now forming in the distance in front of her.

"What? But…but I'm in Naruto's mind!" she argued.

"No doll, you're not." The voice stated. Ino could swear she saw a cigarette butt being flicked away from the form.

"Then where am I?" she asked haughtily.

"You're in my mind. Or at least, my other half's mind." The voice responded, the form moving closer to her now.

"What the fuck does that mean?" she demanded, she was starting to get really creeped out.

"Come now Ino-chan, do you really not recognize me?" the voice asked again.

The form was moving closer still, and slowly becoming clearer as if it was drawing its substance from the darkness surrounding them. The figure was distinctly female though it was the way it moved that gave it away; there were no real curves to speak off. As she moved closer, Ino started to make out color. More specifically, the pink of her shorn hair.

"Ha…Haruno?" she asked hesitantly, something inside her starting to shake as the other girl moved closer.

"Not quite doll…" the voice told her, a vaguely sadistic smirk now visible on her lips.

"Haruno's the one on the outside." She continued.

Her face was clear now, a bright red burn scar blazed on her exposed forehead. Her pink hair had been shorn to within an inch of her scalp. Her green eyes burned with something Ino couldn't recognize yet. White bandages that flattened what small distortions her breasts might have made covered her chest. Her dark blue drawstring pants were tied below her sharp hipbones, allowing the tip of a large, angry, freshly stitched slash across her abdomen to show. Her feet were bare, her pants ending just above her ankles. In her left hand she held a long white coat with flames along the bottom over her shoulder. In her right, she held a long steel pipe that she was using almost like a cane as she walked towards the blonde. As she got closer, bloodstains began to mar the steel.

"Figure it out yet?" the pink haired girl asked again.

"You're Haruno!" Ino stated.

The other girl paused a few steps in front of her and Ino fought against the trembling that started in her spine.

She sighed and lifted her pipe, slinging it across her shoulders as she tipped her head to a seemingly friendly angle as her green eyes burned into Ino's blue ones and her lips twisted into a deeper smirk.

A finger rose from the hand that draped across the end of the pipe, balancing it against her shoulder.

"Tsk tsk." She uttered as the finger ticked slowly from side to side.

"I just told you I was not Haruno. Haruno's the nice one. The one that goes easy on you instead of beating your sorry carcass into the ground like she should." She responded.

"Me on the other hand…" she flexed the arm balanced along the steel pipe and Ino suddenly noted that there was a tattoo there, a swirl with an elongated side line…

Her eyes widened.

"You…you were with ANBU…" She forced out as she finally allowed herself the step back she'd been fighting. ANBU had been the most notorious and violent gang in the city for years until its leader had been brutally murdered and they had disbanded. Many of the members had gone on to form the Akatsuki.

"Getting warmer." The ANBU told her.

Ino was at a loss for what to answer.

"Come on Ino-chan! Don't you recognize me? You've known me for years! You used me to get wheedle your way into my father's bed and in doing so, his pocket book. Don't you remember?" She pressed, taking a step towards the blonde to reform their original distance.

Ino frowned more but didn't move back, it was pointless.

"And you used to tell me that it was such a pretty and feminine name too…" the ANBU said with mock disappointment as she raised her eyes upwards.

"Sa…Sakura-chan?" Ino stuttered, tripping on the name that she had been banned from uttering.

"Bingo!" Sakura exclaimed brightly.

"So glad you finally remembered! What was it that made it so hard? I suppose I don't really look the same as I used to, the hospital had to cut off my hair so they could stitch up the slice on my skull that I got while Father was drunk and toying with his kunai. And I know this burn would normally have been hidden from you because of my bangs. And I certainly never showed off my tattoo or my brand new reason for visiting the hospital…" she rambled with a dangerous pleasantness as she indicated the cut on her belly.

"But still! Oh well. No matter really." She finally said with a shrug.

"Enough talk, you came here for a fight didn't you? You came to prove you were better than me, right?" she pressured, that gleam in her eyes intensifying.

Ino finally recognized it for bloodlust.

"Tell me I'm right Ino-chan." She cajoled her, her voice cold and cruel, her excited grin warping her face, her eyes narrowing and glowing eerily.

Finally she snapped beneath her fear and her hands rose to form the seal to release her jutsu.

Before her hands could meet completely, Sakura's steel pipe smashed down on them with a force Haruno had never used against her, crippling her fingers.

Ino cried out in sudden pain as she felt the bones snap. She looked down to see splinters stabbing through her skin, blood flowing from the wounds.

"Leaving so soon?" Sakura asked her, eyes widened in a fake innocent look.

"Get away from me…please don't hurt me…" Ino pleaded as she stumbled backwards.

"Come now Ino…you wanted to be better than me. Show me that you can be." Sakura told her, coldness returned, twisted smirk back in place.

Ino's eyes just widened more and Sakura sprung, swinging her pipe in a large arc. Ino turned away, raising her arms to protect herself from the blow.

The pipe caught her behind the neck and sent her flying across the space.

(…)

"Sakura! Sakura, are you all right?" Kakashi yelled at her as he shook her comatose body. Naruto was chewing his lip and kneeling beside her also.

Asuma was beside him doing much of the same in an effort to revive Ino.

Suddenly blood started to spill from between Ino's lips.

"What the hell is going on?" Asuma questioned in an almost awed tone.

No one could answer.

(…)

Sakura sighed as she stared down at the blonde girl. She was barely recognizable.

"Really Ino, you really don't have any skills after all. I'm so very disappointed." The pink haired girl admitted as she looked down at the beaten body at her feet.

Blood was oozing from her broken jaw, her cut lip, her swelling eye…from the rips on her limbs. Blood was flowing so freely. The blonde was barely breathing through the weight of the sticky liquid.

Sakura crouched down beside her and dipped her fingertips into the blood spilling from her lips and pooling around her head.

She raised her fingertips, a few drops fell and splashed onto Ino's cheek. She winced. Sakura smirked sadistically.

She ran her blood-coated fingers along her left cheek, leaving four dark crimson stripes.

"Remember this Ino. I win. Your life, your blood, is mine to collect whenever I so choose." She told her coldly, her face an inscrutable mask now.

"Do you understand me?" she questioned.

Ino didn't react.

"Do you understand me or do I have to work a little harder to beat it into your skull?" she grated cruelly.

"I…"Ino gasped then coughed up more blood.

"Nod if you understand." Sakura ordered.

It took all she had, but she managed to nod once.

"Good. Now, get out of my mind." She commanded, flaring her battle aura with such intensity that Ino was expulsed and forced back to her own body.

(…)

Ino shot up with a gasp, eyes wide as her instinct to flee took over immediately. Asuma caught her and held onto her as she struggled.

"Let go of me!" she screamed.

Haruno remained still. She didn't want to move yet.

"Ino! Calm down!" Asuma told her sternly.

Ino slowly stopped struggling as she realized that she was back in her own body and that her real body wasn't nearly as broken as she'd been convinced it was.

She pushed away from Asuma and ran her hands over her flesh, checking it for the injuries Sakura had inflicted upon her with her weapon of choice.

"Oh thank god…" she uttered with relief as she buried her face in her hands. Suddenly she pulled her hands away and stared at them. They were covered in blood. There was blood dripping from her lip. That was the blood she'd marked herself with.

Ino spun suddenly and her eyes fell on Sakura who lay beside her in the grass. She jumped at her and ripped off her bandana and stared at the burn scar there.

The men were so surprised by the move that no one stopped her.

Haruno resigned herself to Ino's examination.

Next Ino pulled down the hem of her pants by an inch and stared at the scar there and the still visible stitch marks. Ino stared at it for a long moment.

Finally she moved to her coat and pulled down the left shoulder, staring at the skin exposed on her upper arm.

Everyone frowned at the sight of the tattoo.

"Ne, Hatake-sensei…don't you…" Naruto questioned but he trailed off at the look on his sensei's face.

The tattoo, or any of Haruno's scars for that matter didn't surprise him. His face was perfectly calm, maybe even sad. Like he'd seen them before…

"It really was you…" Ino whispered as she backed up.

Haruno winced.

"Sakura! Are you alright?" Kakashi asked as soon as he saw movement flicked in her face.

She winced even deeper.

"Don't call me that." She whispered.

"You don't deserve a name like that." Ino spat at her.

Haruno opened her eyes to look at the blonde.

Ino stumbled back.

"You're a monster!" she accused.

"Ino." Haruno started as she sat up.

"Don't come near me, you psycho!" Ino screamed at her.

"Ino, please." Haruno pleaded with her as she stood up.

"Did you listen when I said please?!" Ino threw at her.

Haruno froze.

"You're a monster Sakura, a horrible fucking demented monster!" Ino screamed at her.

"Ino, I—" Haruno tried again.

"Don't speak to me! Don't ever come near me again!" Ino screamed as she backed away from the other girl.

Haruno stayed rooted to her place and lowered her eyes.

"Haruno-chan?" Naruto questioned as he set his hand on her shoulder.

She shook her head.

"Not now Naruto…give me a moment…please." She whispered so that only he could hear.

He nodded and backed up a step.

She pulled her coat back over her shoulder and raised the hem of her pants back over her scar. She bent down and picked up her bandana then straightened again and pulled it back over her forehead.

Ino was watching her from behind Asuma's back, as if she expected her to attack her again.

She drew in a shuddering breath as she looked away from her.

"Sakura."

"Don't call me that." She answered as she started to walk away.

"Sakura wait." He called after her again.

"Don't call me that." She said again, walking faster. She heard a motorcycle rev on the other side of the chain fence that ran along the field.

She almost collapsed with relief.

"Sakura!" Kakashi called again as he jogged and caught up with her grabbing her shoulder.

"Don't' call me that!" she yelled at him as she broke free off his grasp and broke into a run, speeding for the break in the fence and slipping through.

Kakashi followed her easily but froze as he saw who was waiting for her.

She climbed onto the back of the motorcycle with ease, she'd been riding on them since she was a child.

The two men stared each other down.

The man on the bike raised the tinted visor of his helmet. Kakashi raised the bandana that covered his left eye.

Sharingans stared each other down.

There was the jangle of the fence as again someone followed.

Itachi's eye shifted from Kakashi to the new arrival, widening slightly as he recognized him.

"Please, just drive." She pleaded in his ear.

He smiled slowly behind his helmet as he lowered his visor and they pair took off.

Sasuke watched the back disappear, his sharingan focused on the blood red circle on the back of his brother's black coat.


	5. The Second Piece

Authors Notes: Hey everyone, thank you very much for your patience and kind encouraging reviews. I've really appreciated it.

So, this is Chapter 5…it's shorter than the other chapters so I added a bonus at the end. You see, this chapter 5 is actually the second version of it that I wrote and the only of the two that I completed. So, at the end of this, you will find the 8 pages of the alternative chapter 5. I think it's kinda neat, they're both rather radically different from each other on some important things. I hope you guys like it.

Oh, and I would like to dedicate this chapter to Leafy Girl who has been constantly cheering me on all year for it. Without her I probably would have given up on it so if you guys are fans, you might want to thank her too.

And a huge thanks to Lily for beta-ing for me.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hindsight's 20/20 – Chapter 5

By: Tea Leaf

……………………………………………………………………………………………...

He stepped on the gas and they sped away, ripped away from everyone trying to hold them back. In the long run, running now would prove to be pointless. She knew that but she didn't care. She would run as fast and as far as she could for as long as she could. She'd been running for four years, another day wasn't going to make much of a difference to her self-loathing.

Haruno clung tightly to Itachi's waist as the miles flew away beneath them. She didn't know where they were going and to be honest, she didn't care. Itachi was one of the few people she trusted to this extent.

The sun steadily wandered down towards the earth and the cooling air whipped through her clothing, chilling her to the bone with mesmerizing strength. Idly she wondered if she were to let go, could she just fly away on the wind.

Her fingers shifted, loosening their grip fractionally. Itachi's large gloved hand landed on top of hers, holding them in place. She tightened her grip again and his hand went back to the handlebar.

Finally, as the sky bled reds and golds and their city had long disappeared from the horizon, he slowed and finally stopped on the shoulder of the highway. She climbed off and pulled off her helmet, keeping it in her hand as she walked towards the flood barrage that had been set up beside a rather active river. The water was low right now as it was fall. It was draining away. She climbed up and sat down on the wood.

A minute later, Itachi joined her, face set in his blank mask, gaze distracted as he looked out over the water.

He didn't say anything. He didn't need to, she knew what he was thinking, what he wanted to say. She felt guilt swamp her as he sat silent beside her. She'd broken her promise to him. She'd been so caught up in preserving the semblance of a life they had built for themselves that she had denied anything trying to upset it. But in doing so, she'd disturbed the very foundation of their relationship. They could depend on each other. She had not been reliable.

"I'm sorry…" The broken words she'd been whispering like a mantra her entire life rose from her throat without her conscious thought once again. The difference between when she used to use it and when she did now was that now, the words mattered. They made a difference to the man hearing them.

He had loved to hear her say them; plead them to him as he punished her.

Itachi simply accepted them. He did not need to punish her for any transgressions; he knew she would not commit them again. She had been well trained. But even that wasn't his fault and so she didn't hold it against him. He trusted her personality, knew it better than his own. In a way, it was the same in reverse.

Maybe that's why she had been so afraid to let him know.

She leaned against him and he lifted his arm, looping it around her shoulders and letting her snuggle close to him.

She clung to his jacket, letting the heat of his body warm her and the slight scent of his sweat mixed with cologne and the ever present undertone of blood envelop her. She knew that this would be one of the last times she'd be able to.

(…)

Haruno winced as she heard Ino's shrill excuse for a voice raging at the top of her lungs about the injustices that had been committed to her in yesterday's sparring match.

The whole school was abuzz about it. Apparently, the student body had spent the afternoon watching the fight rather than studying their lessons. Ino was basking in the attention, taking advantage of every opportunity to rant and rave about how horrible she, Haruno, was. And of course, everyone was lapping it up.

She felt even more cynical than normal. She'd forgotten just how much of a freak show she was.

"Haruno-chan!" The chipper voice was swiftly followed by a heavy arm landing over her shoulders and a large grin swimming into her field of vision.

"Good morning!" Naruto exclaimed brightly.

Haruno bit back the harsh retort of "And what the hell is good about it?" and settled for nodding in acknowledgement of him. She wasn't really in the mood to be chatty.

Naruto's smile faltered slightly at the corners as he tightened his grip on her shoulders, pulling her into a half hug.

"Thanks for yesterday." He told her seriously.

She smiled weakly.

"Don't mention it." She stated as she felt the weight that had been hung on her spirit since the previous night lift slightly. She'd done the right thing. Her reputation didn't matter, nor did Ino's mental state. Naruto did, and she'd protected him.

"Chouji and Shika both got out of the mess unscathed too. And Ino's just being a bitch, as usual." He informed her.

"I know." Haruno answered as she took a deep breath and pushed an attempt at a smile onto her lips.

They wandered silently through the crowded halls, heading towards the stairway that led them to the second floor where their English class was.

Their third was waiting for them on the landing between the two stories.

Sasuke frowned at Naruto's arm and the fact the Haruno was not alone. He had not been overly surprised to see that it was indeed his brother that she was "with" but it did nothing to lessen the shock of seeing him for the first time in a decade. Or of seeing her leave so readily with him.

He needed to get her alone as soon as possible and pump her for information on Itachi. He needed to convince her to help him in his plan.

But right now he couldn't.

Haruno looked away from him as Naruto forced her to stop in front of him.

Naruto was grinning brightly, exchanging morning pleasantries with the younger Uchiha. She was surprised by the camaraderie they displayed. It seemed that fighting together made them friends.

The thought was punctuated as Naruto playfully punched Sasuke in the arm and the latter joined them on the last leg of the trip to class.

Well, that's two hurdles down so far: facing the school and facing Sasuke…those were the easy ones… she thought as dread slowly tightened the long muscles of her back. The tension grew with each step they took closer to Kakashi's classroom door.

Naruto's arm tightened slightly, comfortingly around her shoulders.

She had to admit, she was a bit relieved that she wouldn't be facing him alone. She knew that she would have to soon, but at least right now she could avoid it.

(…)

Kakashi had not been looking forward to his first class…more so than usual. He did not want to teach at all today. He just wanted to grab Haruno the second he saw her and take her far far away from here for a very long discussion.

He looked up from his desk as he heard Naruto and Sasuke's voices outside the door. The pair came in, Haruno held protectively under Naruto's considerably massive arm. Something inside of him tightened inexplicably at the sight. It took him by surprise and he was suddenly glad for the mask that hid his face and his gut reaction.

Haruno met his eyes for a second, long enough for it to feel like she was looking straight through him and knew exactly what he was thinking and feeling. But then she looked away, breaking the connection and cautiously avoiding making it again as she slid towards the back of the class with her teammates.

His hidden eye twitched slightly.

Steadily the students threaded in and finally the bell rang. He sucked it up and did what he was paid to do.

(…)

The class dragged on but if asked later, Haruno would not have been able to relay what she had been taught and Kakashi would not be able to say what he was teaching. Haruno spent the morning watching the grounds beneath the window blindly, Kakashi's voice like static in the back of her mind.

Many times Naruto thought to strike up conversation with her, but every time, something reminded him that it was a better idea to just not say anything at all right now.

Finally the bell rang to both the relief and dread of many of the students. Steadily they filed out as Kakashi cleared away the notes and books he'd been using. Sasuke slouched back in his chair as he waited, propping his feet up on the desk in front of him. Naruto slumped down in his desk; face almost lost in the bulk of his crossed arms. Only a glint of electric blue revealed that he was in fact very awake and aware of his surroundings. Haruno continued to stare out the window.

Kakashi leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest as he assessed his charges. Again, he mentally cursed himself for agreeing to take them on in the first place.

Sasuke stared at him challengingly; his impatience radiated from him. Finally with a sigh, Kakashi gave in to the pressure of duty.

"You guys did well yesterday." He stated awkwardly into the silence of the room.

Naruto shifted slightly, both eyes now peeking out from over his arms and locking on their teacher.

Kakashi coughed in an effort to dislodge the glue blocking his words. He needed to come up with something constructive for the team to work on. Now was not the time to sort out personal demons.

The silence stretched and thickened, only Haruno seemed unaffected as her cold green eyes avoided reality.

With a muttered curse, Kakashi gave up.

"Sasuke, Naruto, team up with Gai and his team today." He stated tersely.

Haruno's eyes snapped to the front of the class, the move punctuated by the slamming of Sasuke's boots on the floor and Naruto's questioning "huh?".

Kakashi squared his shoulders and set his jaw, filling his form with years of command.

"That is your training for the day. Go." He reiterated, his tone not harsh or loud but immobile.

Naruto cast a worried glance at Haruno but her faint nod had him lumbering to his feet and collecting his book bag.

"Come on Sasuke. We'd better hurry or Gai will get out the spandex." He said lightly, a forced grin stretching his lips and squinting his eyes.

Sasuke's eyes locked on Kakashi's only visible one. But his teacher's face remained infuriatingly impassive.

Naruto nudged his shoulder lightly.

With a snarl, Sasuke rose and snatched up his bag, spiting a dark glower at Kakashi as he passed.

Kakashi's composure remained though as he steadily watched them leave and listened to their steps down the empty hall. As the last echoes faded, he slowly rose from the desk, moving heavily and deliberately towards the door. The soft thud of wood against wood and the click of the latch echoed through the still room. Haruno had not moved an eyelash, watching him warily as he moved. She waited for a lock that never came.

Kakashi let go of the handle and moved again, his footsteps heavy and reluctant. He'd forced their confrontation because he could not bear letting it go. But now that the moment was at hand his mind had wiped blank of words and his body felt heavy and lethargic.

Had things turned out differently so long ago, he'd never have been here. Had he but known…he shook his head slightly of the familiar and ever futile what ifs.

His feet dragged as he moved towards her, the weight of the air pressing down on him, harder with every step.

Haruno felt the tension in her shoulders slide into heavy waiting. Her hands fell from where they rested on the desk, down onto her lap in an ungraceful movement. The weight of them was suddenly so hard for her to bear as her shoulders bowed with the effort.

Her breathing was growing harder, a suffocating weight pushing down on her rib cage, compressing it, not allowing her the air she seemed to need.

Finally Kakashi reached her and turned the chair of the desk in front of her.

He sat down heavily, almost collapsing into it. He met her eyes and simply looked at her, unable to say a thing.

Haruno's jaw had locked, her throat slowly squeezing shut. She stared back.

Slowly the dust in the room settled around them as the sunlight stretched through the windows. There was something wrong about the brightness. Haruno felt robbed that it wasn't even yet midday. The sun should be setting. Slowly meandering and declining in the sky. Like they were.

Her eyes grew sore as did the back of her neck. Her breathing tightened and her heart stepped up. Her muscles tensed as she held it back.

She wanted to cry, to yell, to scream at him, to hurt him. She wanted to hit him, to expose him.

His gaze was half hidden and dark, full of resignation. He'd long ago given up. Given up on everything, on himself, on his life, on her. He was hiding, hiding from her in plain sight.

He hadn't even raised his bandana so as to look at her with both eyes. That, more than anything, pushed back the flood of her emotions. How could she open up to a ghost? A specter of the man who brought this out in her.

Her eyes died as he watched.

The bell rang.

She broke eye contact and stood, gathering her things.

He stared at the spot where she had been.

She walked past him, steps heavy and echoing hollowly as she went to the door.

He made no effort to stop her.

She didn't hesitate at the door, nor look back as she walked through.

(…)

Itachi found her lying on the bottom of the bathtub, covered in barely lukewarm water.

She rose to the surface as he looked down at her, lips parted as she took a deep breath of air, filling the lungs that had been so compressed but a moment ago.

The room was dark, the only light stemming from the moon and filtering in through the stained, crushed glass window.

His hands rose, cold and calloused and smoothed her hair back from her face, exposing the churning burn scar on her forehead, before moving down to wipe the water out of her eyes.

Her hands remained limp in the water, her fingers grossly warped from the long soaking she'd done.

"You need to train him." He told her, his voice like black gravel rolling roughly through her ears.

She bowed her head in acceptance.

(…)

Sasuke was sneering condescendingly as she explained to him that he had a lot of work to do.

The entire day had passed in a blur to her, much as the day before. And now here she was, taking the day off work to do what she had promised to do long ago.

She was going to prepare Sasuke for a confrontation with Itachi.

But Sasuke would have none of it. All he wanted from her was a location and no matter how hard she tried to explain to him that he would be killed, he would not accept her help.

She was so tired. Tired of arguing with him. Tired of talking about death and revenge. Tired of hearing what Itachi had done to his brother. Tired of everything.

She closed her eyes, hand rising to gently massage her forehead.

If he wouldn't accept her help, despite all her efforts, then that was all there was to it. Secretly she thought this was better anyway.

She rose from his living room couch and walked wearily to the door.

There was static in the back of her mind again, he was still yelling at her but she'd long lost the ability to understand his words.

Finally he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him.

He was angry but she could see the fear deep in the dark pools of his eyes.

She felt the band over her ribs contract.

"Every day after school, meet me in the abandoned warehouse on Industrial." She instructed him.

He nodded reluctantly.

"We'll start tomorrow."

She pulled on her shoes and left. She heard the static but she ignored it. Her mind pleaded respite.

She left the apartment, taking the stairs rather than the elevator so as to take more time getting home. She wasn't ready to face Itachi. She didn't want to tell him that she would be training his brother to kill him, like he had asked her to. She didn't want to think of the repercussions it would have on her own life. She would have to quit her job which meant her funds would only decline from here on out. She would have to live with the fact that one or the other Uchiha was going to die and that she would be partially responsible for that death.

She was going to be fully responsible for destroying Sasuke's soul and everything good in him.

She blocked the thought from her mind, ignoring it, denying it. She forced her brain to go blank as she moved slowly and aimlessly through the dark streets. The roads seemed familiar somewhere in the back of her mind but she didn't probe the feeling, she simply followed it in effort to escape everything else.

Her eyes stayed low on the ground, her shoulders hunched against the cold night wind coming in off the water.

Off the water…she looked up and found herself at the loading docks. She smiled deprecatingly to herself as she moved to the railing, crouching down and leaning against the post as she stared out over the inky water.

She had not been here in many years. In what seemed like a lifetime ago, this had been where he had taken her to escape her father. She'd almost forgotten about it. She'd always been so grateful to him for it. Her savior, he had seemed. So strong and smart, so brave to defy her father. So kind to her. Always so kind, sharing his smile that was hidden from everyone else. He was as gone now as she was. Both the girl and the man, phantoms of a better time.

Maybe better wasn't the best word. The highs had been far higher than anything in her life now but so the lows had been so much lower. Life now was stable, comfortable, static. Or at least it had been. She wasn't so sure it was any more and it was sure to only get worse.

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cold metal post, momentarily drowning in her nostalgia, falling so deeply that even those haunting strains of the harmonica he would play for her filled her ears.

But he had never played a song so sad for her.

She opened her eyes, banishing the cobwebs of her memory and straining her ears.

It was faint, so faint, but it was there.

She shouldn't follow it, the last thing she needed right now was to be shut out. But her feet moved of their own accord, drawn to the sounds. Drawn to the player.

She moved into the deep shadows of the alleys connecting the old warehouses that had been converted to apartments. The air was cold and moist, clinging icily to her, sticking in her hair and her throat.

The brick walls closing in on her were damp, mold growing in places. The fire escapes were slippery, starting to hide as a fog seeped in from the water. The straining harmonica echoed hollowly around her, she felt like she was listening to it underwater. It was misleading, the sound seemed to have no real origin, and for a moment she stopped, almost caving to the belief that it was all in her head.

But the thought of what lay in wait should she leave now loomed over and her feet refused to turn towards it. She continued to move forward, her steps almost silent, only a dull thud adding depth to the grief flowing around her.

She stopped at the base of one of the fire escapes and looked up. At the top, a faint light filtered through the open window, coming from far deeper in the room. A silhouette cut into its muted exposure, casting his shadow down the opposite wall.

Entranced, she pulled down the ladder leading up. It was either surprisingly silent or both were far too involved with the subconscious realm to hear its squeak. Slowly and steadily she climbed upwards, occasionally slipping on the cold, wet metal. But she persisted. There was nothing but broken glass at the bottom.

Finally she reached him but he showed no awareness of her. His face was completely uncovered, his gray hair falling to shadow his closed eyes without his usual headband holding it back. His lean lips caressed the well worn metal of the harmonica as his long-fingered, hard-worked hands cradled it, so gently and so fiercely, as if it were the last precious thing he had to his name.

She crouched down in the shadows, sitting on the worn, rusty rungs of the old fire escape, looking up at the man who went to such lengths to hide from her, completely exposed to her eyes for the first time since before her father died.

She couldn't say how long she sat there listening to him play what was slowly seeming to take the shape of their lives. The last note strained and fought only to die lingeringly into the night.

Haruno had her legs tucked up close against her chest, her arms wrapped around them as her chin rested exhaustedly on her knees.

He sat slouched in the wide, open window frame, one bare foot propped against the peeling wood, while the other jean clad leg draped languorously down to the metal balcony of the fire escape. His shoulders were hunched and pulled in but Haruno suspected it had more to do with his state of mind than the cold river air washing over his bare skin.

Slowly, he pulled the harmonica away letting his arms fall back to either side of the window while his head fell back against the frame, throwing his hair out of his eyes.

He didn't acknowledge her presence, but she knew he was aware of her. She simply waited, soaking him in, re-familiarizing herself with his features. His forehead was high and unmarred, framed by a slightly pointed hairline. His eyes were deep set, his eyebrows casting dark shadows over them even when they were in the brightest sunlight. His nose was well molded, properly proportioned, though slightly crooked and bumped where multiple breaks had healed. His cheekbones were a little high, his jaw smoothly defined though darkened slightly by stubble and a gauntness that had sunk in after the last time she'd seen him. His chin was strong; his lips were a little long and a little thin, marred by a small white scar cutting across the right side of the bottom. His paleness was perhaps more dramatic due to the thin red scar that ran down the left side of his face, cutting across his eye.

She was surprised by how clinical she felt, slowly dissecting him with her eyes. She was intruding, she knew. He didn't want her to look at him but she wasn't through with looking at him yet. She doubted she'd ever see her fill.

With a deep sigh that shivered in his ribs, his eyes cracked open. Mismatched red and black met her diluted green, allowing her the full weight of them. She felt her shoulders curve in under them as their weight settled heavily in her chest and sunk her deep into her toes. She could see his questions clear as day, straining to reach her through the failing light and the shadows cast by his brow, enhanced by the dark circles under his eyes.

She refused to answer it until he spoke it to her. She would ignore it; ignore it in hopes of avoiding the inevitable for as long she could.

It took an almost superhuman effort for him to formulate the words and push them out of his throat after several minutes.

"Why are you here Sakura?" His voice sounded so much older, rusted from neglect and time.

Something in her fell, deflated at the words. Maybe some small, secret part of her had hoped…hoped…for what, she couldn't describe.

It took her a long moment to order her thoughts into a legitimate reason. If she said "nothing" he would disappear inside and she would be locked out. And today…she just couldn't take that today.

"You have my sketchbook." She answered him, her voice small and just this side of hesitant.

He continued to watch her and she waited patiently for him.

He could easily just go inside and get it, give it to her and send her off. His logical brain stated that that was exactly what he should do. But his body felt like it was made out of lead and refused to make a move towards it.

"Why am I in it?"

The words, which but a moment ago had been glued in his throat suddenly spilt forward like water. So fast, they were hanging in the air, shimmering and dissipating into the fog. So fast, they were gone and he couldn't take them back. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"It's for an art project." She answered quickly, embarrassed by the answer and taken off guard by the question. Her inner self sneered at her. Kakashi was not a man she'd ever taken the coward's way away from. How things had changed.

He didn't ask further, simply slid gracefully unto his apartment floor and prowled away from her, into the dark recesses within.

Her pulse quickened as a sense of desperation pushed her to her feet and through the window after him. She froze as she stepped inside.

The furniture was old and worn, third hand when it came to him and well used since. It was tidy but somehow felt musty, as if everything was covered in a growing layer of dust. The way houses whose owners had died and had no one left to care for their home. An overwhelming emptiness momentarily overcame her.

The light flickered as he walked in its path, emerging from his bedroom with the thick pad of paper in hand. He handed it to her wordlessly as he walked past her into the kitchen.

She held it dumbly for a moment, her eyes following him as he moved listlessly in the shadows of his kitchen, filling a kettle with water and setting it on the stove before leaning against the counter to wait.

She pulled her mechanical pencil out of the spiral binding of the book and moved, leaning against the back of the couch and looking through the doorway at him. She flipped blindly to the first blank page.

Obliviously, she drew the lead across the paper, translating her vision.

The kettle whistled and he moved, turning off the stove and taking the container off the element. He poured the water into the waiting tea pot, watching as color bled from the teabag, drowning in the hot water. He reached into the cupboard above him, pulling out two mugs. He turned to offer her some tea but by the time he looked, she was already gone.

His body suddenly felt heavy again as he turned and poured only one mug.

(…)

Genma chewed thoughtfully on his toothpick as he took in the new piece now hanging beside the mysterious ink drawing.

This one was done entirely in pencil and was of a man leaning against a kitchen counter. The view was through a doorframe and most of the room was lost to intricate shadows, the man was masked by them. It felt so lonely, so forlorn, so abandoned.

If he were asked though, he would have said that the most gut-wrenching part had to be the shadow that stretched up over the wall that the doorway was cut out of. It was so abstract; most would have probably sworn it off. But he would swear that the shadow was of a person reaching out for the figure in the kitchen.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hindsight's 20/20 – Alternate, discarded Chapter 5

………………………………………………………………………………………………

They drove. The miles stretched out in front and behind them as they sped down the ribbon of pavement. The wind, ice cold, whipped by but her skin was soon numb to its bite. The city split before them, warping around them as they forced their exit.

They were leaving, but she wasn't escaping.

It was a new prison they went to, another filthy city with the same chains waiting to shackle her to this existence she deplored. She hated herself, a lot more today than she had since…well, maybe not that much yet. There was little in the world that could make her hate her reflection that much. Just that, really.

But today had been a bad enough day without having to remember that. And so she let the cold air sink into her, numbing her thoughts.

Her sight blurred as the scenery flew by for hours, the sky steadily fading. It was all just fading away, wasn't it?

As the sky burned crimson, he finally turned onto the off ramp, taking her into her city's twin, his city.

Itachi did not live in a city he worked in. He believed it was too obvious. He owned an apartment in a city four hours away. He didn't live in his apartment. It was too obvious for those who knew him. He lived in a room in the building across the street from his apartment with a window looking into his apartment's living room. That way he could watch for intruders and know who was hunting him before they could find him.

To those who didn't know him like she did, they might think he was overly paranoid and maybe he was. Or maybe they just didn't understand the realities of life as an assassin.

But she knew him better than that.

It wasn't because he was paranoid or afraid, Itachi wasn't afraid of anything. He wasn't even being realistically cautious.

It was a game. A hunting game. A single player, single shooter video game. He would watch with his sadistic grin of anticipation, hoping to be found, hoping that someone would dare to challenge him.

Hoping for his little brother to catch up to him.

He had taken her there once, only once. She shuddered at the memory. Itachi was a different person in the comfort of his own home. Or maybe it was that he was a different person when away from it. Whatever the case, he was human when in her home. He was a monster when in his own.

He wasn't taking her there yet. She didn't doubt for a second that that was where they would end up later, but for now, their destination was a mystery. But wherever it was, she was sure it was someplace she did not want to be.

He was angry with her. She could tell by the tenseness his body had been carrying since he'd laid eyes on his estranged sibling.

She was his prey tonight, and he would play with her until he was ready to devour her because that was how Itachi played. And it seemed that the knowledge that his sibling was so close had sparked up his playful streak again. It had been dormant since he'd lost his left eye.

He pulled up to an expensive Italian restaurant and parked. Immediately, she was out of place.

Phase one to the game: Take the prey out of its natural environment.

She pulled off her helmet and adjusted her headband over her imperfect forehead. She squared her shoulders and followed him inside.

Their coats were taken at the door. She was grossly underdressed, especially for the elite dinner crowd currently gracing the perfectly made tables. Had the Maitre d' not recognized Itachi, she would have been turned away before her dirty, sneakered foot had touched the plush red carpet.

They were taken to a table in the far corner of the room by the window. He sat in the chair by the wall, forcing her to sit in the chair that exposed her back to the other dinners. She could feel their cruel eyes burning into the space between her shoulder blades. She was completely exposed.

Itachi was immaculate and perfectly appropriate in his black leather pants and silk shirt, offset by his slim, blood red tie. His hair was pulled back, tied loosely at the base of his skull; his eye shot straight through her. One of his elbows rested on the arm of his chair, the fingers from that hand idly tapping his chin. His shoulders were thrown back, making him appear larger, like he owned and filled all the space around him. She could feel his chakra pulsing; she could see the results in his blood red eye.

Phase 2: Intimidation.

It had been a long time since he'd held up his sharingan around her. She strained slightly to keep her breathing steady. It was all just a game. He wanted to get the better of her. She couldn't let him. She'd never let someone do that to her again.

He didn't say a word to her, speaking only to order red wine when the waiter came to the table. His sharp gaze never left her.

She hated how he looked through her.

Against her will, she was slowly tensing under his scrutiny.

His lips twitched slightly at the corner. He raised his wine glass and took a sip of the dark liquid. And still remained intensely silent.

She gave into the urge to look away from him, choosing to focus a spot on the wall over his right shoulder instead.

In her peripheral vision she saw his smirk grow a little wider.

They ordered dinner. She could hear that predatory lilt in his voice now.

They waited in silence. His was patient. Hers was tense but she wasn't about to break it. She had nothing to justify to him and she refused to allow herself to forget it.

Finally the food came but she had no appetite.

"Eat, Sakura-chan." He said, she could tell he was mocking Kakashi's calling earlier in the day.

But she picked up her fork and did as she was told. Itachi was well known for violent mood swings once his displeasure had been aroused.

"Is it good, Sakura-chan?" he asked her with a thickly fake sincerity.

"Very good." She answered after swallowing the ash in her throat.

"Isn't it nice to eat out at nice restaurants?" he questioned again before taking another sip of his now refilled glass of wine.

"It is very nice." She answered mechanically. She knew where he was leading. He was flaunting his money. Money was power. And everyone knew that the only thing Itachi craved was power.

He was very powerful.

It was a reminder.

As if she could forget.

"It is nice. We could do it more often." He answered.

Now he was offering that money to her. Reminding her that if her pride would allow it, she would never have to work in that damned coffee house again, she could buy her apartment building and gleefully burn it to the ground. But that money was dirty.

"mm." She responded vaguely.

He understood her. He'd been the only one who ever really had.

He didn't say anything, letting the silence stretch and thicken. Letting the pressure of his gaze build on her steadily.

"How is Kakashi-senpai?" he asked finally, a terrifying grin spreading across his lips.

She dropped her fork and looked up sharply.

He hadn't expected her to answer him; she knew she wasn't supposed to. Her reaction was enough. It told him everything he wanted to know.

Now he had power over her. Sakura cursed fluently inside her head.

He knew she didn't care what he did to her, but doing something to someone she cared about…well that was another story.

"How long Sakura?" he asked, his voice cold, his expression now blank and serious.

She didn't even bother pretending she didn't know what he meant.

"I met him the first day of school, it clicked on the third." She answered.

"Why?" he pressed.

"He used the sharingan." She answered.

"How evolved is it?"

"First stage."

The questions and answers were like rapid fire, unconscious and unhesitant.

Itachi sat back in his chair, fingers steepled together as his elbows rested on the arms of the chair. He was contemplating this new information.

"It won't do." He said finally.

She didn't respond. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her or himself.

"Raise it."

She tensed. She nodded once.

She had trained with Itachi and Kakashi for a very long time, she knew how the sharingan worked and she knew what would be required of her.

She didn't want to. But she didn't honestly have a choice in the matter. She had never had a choice.

He threw cash on the table and stood. She stood as well and followed him out of the restaurant, retrieving her red leather cross as she did.

(…)

He took her to his apartment. Not the decoy but the real one. She hated this room. It reminded her of her father's.

It was dark; the lighting was bad so it wouldn't be obvious from the outside. The walls were covered in weapons, guns, katanas, kunai, shiruken, daggers, sais, kodachi. There was a case full of nin-jutsu scrolls. There was a sniper rifle set up at the window facing the entrance of the building across the street where his decoy apartment was. The scope doubled as a telescope to watch people. There were more telescopes set up, one facing his decoy apartment's bare windows so that he could watch everything that went on in it. Then there was his loose telescope, the one he used to watch people when he was bored. The idea of being watched by a murdered creeped her out. But then again, one stared at her in the mirror everyday so she really couldn't complain.

He didn't even bother checking his scopes; he just closed the door behind him, locking it. He then started stripping as he moved towards the bed that was set under the katana rack and that she knew had several loaded handguns strapped to the headboard.

She followed suit.

This was another show of power. One she'd been subjected to for as long as she could remember.

She'd learned to numb her body to the point where she couldn't feel anything anymore. But she was aware of it. She couldn't help but know. She was utterly powerless and there was nothing she could do about it.

People seemed to like to remind her of that.

(…)

He dropped her off on time at school the next morning. This was the last place she wanted to be right now, especially in the same clothes she'd worn yesterday.

He'd know the second he saw her. He always knew. She could always tell. He would always give her that look, the look that said he really did not want to be looking at her; he didn't want to see her.

She hated that look.

But she couldn't go back to her apartment. Itachi had gone back there to sleep some more. She didn't want to see him for as long as she could manage without looking suspicious. It would be suspicious if she didn't go home that night.

He would ask her about her progress with his brother.

She had to make progress with his brother.

She wanted to tell his brother to run as far and as fast as he possibly could and to never look back for a second. She wanted to do that herself.

But she wouldn't tell him that. And she wouldn't do that.

She owed Itachi and she couldn't leave until she'd paid her debt to him.

She was starting to get funny looks from the students walking past her. Funnier than normal at any rate. And a different kind of funny than the ones she would be getting once Ino had played Drama Queen for the whole student body.

She sighed and moved towards the main door. She'd just have to suck it up.

She didn't bother loitering in the halls or going to her locker just to fiddle with its lack of content. She went straight to class. It would be better to get it over with without an audience.

The classroom was empty when she reached it on the second floor. She moved to the back of the class and took the desk next to the window in the last row.

Kakashi was staring at her from his desk opposite her in the front of the class. She hadn't even looked at him when she'd come in. She refused to look at him now.

She heard his chair scrape. His steps moved towards her. He straddled the seat at the desk directly in front of her and crossed his arms on the back of it, resting his chin on them and staring at her intently.

Her hand twitched slightly but she stilled it with her will before it started to shake.

"Stop staring at me." She said monotonously, eyes still fixed determinately away from him.

He didn't. His gaze was starting to weigh on her. It was harder to suppress her shaking hands. Her pulse was slowly getting louder and louder as it thrummed through her ears.

She snapped her eyes away from the window and met his straight on.

No wonder she'd reacted like that, he was staring at her with both of his eyes. One coal black, the other blood red.

She hadn't expected that.

She swallowed hard.

"What?" she asked after a minute, her voice a lot less firm and annoyed than she'd wanted it to be.

"Are you ok?" he asked her, holding her gaze.

She looked down.

"I'm fine Kakashi." She told him. It was truthful. She was ok. She had no choice but to be ok.

He kept staring at her, staring through her. She hated that about the sharingan, she always felt overexposed and raw under its intensity.

He opened his mouth.

The bell rang. The stream of students pouring into the desks cut him off.

He stood and moved back to the front of the class.

She turned her eyes back to the window.

Naruto flopped into the seat Kakashi had just emptied.

"'Morning Haruno-chan…" he said through a huge yawn before smiling brightly at her.

She turned and smiled back at him.

"'Morning Naruto. Late night?" she asked him with a suggestively cocked eyebrow.

He flushed slightly. She laughed at him.

Sasuke sprawled into the desk beside her.

He didn't say anything but he was watching her out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to talk to her.

Well, she wanted to talk to him too so he'd have every opportunity.

The second bell rang.

Kakashi yelled at the students to sit down and shut up.

Haruno pulled out her headphones and set them in her ears discreetly before pressing play on her walkman, effectively blocking out the noise of the class and the voice of the teacher. She stared out the window and watched the sun lazily climb in the cold, faded gray blue sky. The soft subtleties of the music helped her clear her head and focus on her immediate problems, raising Sasuke's sharingan before Itachi became impatient with her. She suppressed the shudder that strained to shake her spine at the memory of the last time she'd tried his patience.


	6. Blood Stains

**Disclaimer:** Naruto still ain't mine.

**Author Notes:** This is…version three of this chapter. Versions one and two can be found in my livejournal, there's a link in my profile. Thanks to J and Lily for helping me out.

Dedicated to Emmy, thanks for putting up with my bitching honey.

………

**Hindsight's 20/20**

Chapter 6

By: Tea Leaf

………

Naruto stared at the ceiling as the water spread.

It was pouring outside. The roof had collapsed in spots and the water leaking through gathered over the drywall of his ceiling. It was steadily seeping through, creating warped puddles above his head. As the drywall saturated, beads of water started to gather, hanging on tenaciously.

A sudden boom of thunder shook the building; the drops fell, splashing onto the scuffed wooden floor.

Flaring lightning ripped through the sky, seeming to steal all of its power from the wires in his wall. The room flickered into darkness as the building shook again as the thunder boomed. The water picked up speed as it raced towards his floor.

Containers needed to be set up to catch it. The thought dripped sluggishly into his brain but as much as he wanted to, his body wouldn't move.

He was surprised he could breathe.

The swelling around his black eye and split lip throbbed in time with the rain. His scalp felt cold where the blood was seeping through his hair and pooling on the pillow beneath it.

He shifted his eyes, numbing pain shooting up from the effort and blurring his vision. When a mockery of focus returned, he stared at the water steadily spreading across the floor.

He was helpless to stop it.

………

The rhythm of the rain was intoxicating. So quick, so heavy, it hit the window pane, hit the rail and splashed, hitting her. The exposed skin of her thigh shivered, shuddered as the cold drops landed on her.

Haruno sat on the window ledge, slouched with her feet against the frame. The cold glass of the open window vibrated lightly against her skin as the sounds and smell of the storm poured in.

She suspected that that was what she liked the most about the rain, the smell and the feeling that everything was being pushed back down into the earth.

An open sketch book sat upright against her thighs. Her hands lay dead against her stomach, her wooden pencil resting against her palms. The weight of it pressed down into her flesh, nerves strangely aware of its solid mass.

Her drawing was getting wet. She liked how it looked.

………

The smooth, gleaming sheath of the katana pressed heavily into his hands, his palms caving to accommodate it like water.

He felt the weight acutely, as much physically as psychologically. So heavy, it had been steadily drowning his sanity since he was a child. This was the extension, his mean to the end he'd been working so hard to reach for so long.

Sasuke had been six when his world crashed irreparably to the ground. Over a decade later, he was still trapped in the ruble. But this, this would save him.

He closed his hands around the wood, knuckles white as he tightened his grip. How simple his salvation would be, how simple his brother's punishment.

He stood, sword held horizontally in front of him as he moved towards the rack on his wall. He set the sword back in its place reverently. He had never unsheathed it. He only would once.

………

Wood against wood; it was an overly familiar sound that still managed to raise the hair on the back of his neck. Maybe it was the sudden awareness that he was unarmed. Maybe it was the sudden awareness that it was only temporary.

As the dark wood of his katana's sheath made contact with the rack mounted on the wall, he shook his head slightly, trying to clear the strange echoing the sound made in his mind.

Whatever it was, he ignored it, not bothering to justify his natural reactions.

The chair in front of the large windows creaked. It was a strange sound, but would prove useful one day. It would give someone away one day; it would save his life one day. Maybe.

He planned to be dead long before that day.

Red eyed, he stared, steadily focusing on the rain tumbling down the side of the apartment building. Looking past, his attention focused on the window two floors lower and slightly to the left of the building opposite his.

That was his apartment. This was where he lived.

The back wall of the apartment was blank, clear of messages and missions.

There was no work tonight; nothing to keep him occupied other than the patterns he saw in the rain as insomnia continued to plague him.

It had been worse lately.

Uchiha Itachi hadn't slept in five days.

………

The sharp wail of his alarm clock sliced through the air. With a groan, Kakashi pulled his thick pillow tightly over his ear.

He wasn't ready to get up yet. He'd been dreaming for the first time in years, or maybe remembering was more accurate. His mind was still lost in the fog rolling in with the ships, and the soft smell of cinnamon drifting up from her hair.

The alarm persisted, steadily growing in volume.

A hand crawled out and groped at the contraption, hunting for the right button to shut the shrieking. Finding it, the hand dropped limply before he rolled onto his back stared blearily at the ceiling.

Sunlight filtered through his windows. The clouds from the day before had rained themselves out finally.

Slowly he sat up and checked the time, lips pulling into a grimace before he crawled out of his bed far earlier than any sane person ever would.

Damn school. He'd gotten on just fine without it when he was a kid, why had she been so insistent on going?

What did she see in this second rate, recycled garbage he and every other teacher in that school spewed on her every day? He had never understood, and she had never explained.

Awkwardly, he made his way into the bathroom and twisted the faucets for the shower. Something red flashed in the mirror, catching his attention. He turned, and stared at the tattoo on his shoulder, the mark that would forever dictate his life and his loyalty.

That was the reason he'd never asked, never pressured her. If she needed to be at school, then he needed to be at school to look after her. Because that was what he'd sworn to do.

Steam started to rise from behind the shower curtain. He watched it fog over the mirror, erasing the swirling red lines, erasing him.

………

………

If he were the type to be distracted, it would have been that elusive gleam of cold steel against the pitch black of the room that would have been his undoing.

So many nights, like this night, that sharp gleam, sliding easily down the edge of his katana as he swung, was the last thing he wanted to see.

The blade he carefully polished everyday bounced the light. The spark, that one spark, blinked at him a million times over as glossy blood arched through the air and reflected it. Was it poetic?

He couldn't tell.

It was just an idle observation.

Face hidden behind cloth as dark as his eyes, he flicked the blood from the katana sharply, before he sheathed it in the wooden case strapped to his back. He'd clean it once he was back.

The darkness in the room was impenetrable now; whatever the light's source had been was lost now that the steel wasn't amplifying it.

The realization stayed with him on the long walk from the city to the barracks.

It wasn't the bodies hidden in the darkness, it wasn't the blood staining his weapon or splashed on his clothing, it was that illusive, unreal spec of light.

He looked up as he walked, staring at the stars. How bright they were, how close. They were always like that in the winter though.

The cold went unnoticed, despite the exposure his uniform left. He rarely felt anything more that mild curiosity these days.

It was that curious feeling that slowly halted his progress along the frozen dirt road and distracted him from the white fog his breath caused in the air.

Dimly, he was aware of the roar of an engine but he ignored it, dismissed it and the car slowed to a stop beside him. There was a slight squeaking noise as the window rolled down.

"Sempai." The voice was cold, professional, the only voice to be heard now even if the speaker changed. "You're late." So it was feminine this time. He could barely tell.

"Ah…" Cold, professional, and bored. He sounded like the rest of them only worse.

"Get in; the boss wants to see you." She was getting impatient, her voice tightening just so.

He stared at the stars for another minute; strangely involved with the steady numbness the cold was impressing on him.

Finally he turned to her, eyes cold, professional, bored. "Were you sent to fetch me, Yuugao?" he asked the girl, recognizing her dark hair, dark lips, and determined stare.

The color drained fractionally from her already pale skin; she was afraid of him. Maybe it was the blood. Maybe she hadn't fully desensitized herself to her work.

Maybe he would be lucky enough to be dead before she did.

She swallowed, once, shallow, and nodded.

He moved with the grace and direct lines of a predator unconsciously. They'd never taught him how to turn it off.

Pulling open the passenger side door, he slid into the car, slouching and staring out at the road.

Yuugao shifted the gear and took off like the hounds of hell were on her heels. She was still new.

They drove, further and further down the dirt road, deeper into ignored territory as he stared out the window. The stars seemed fainter now, the darkness of the night more consuming as they sped down the road towards the ANBU compound.

They passed the deceptively rusty gates, following the serpentine driveway to the main house. Yuugao dropped him off there, telling him the boss was in his office.

The harsh glare of the electric house lights drowned out the subtle brilliance of the sky.

Another pointless observation.

The house reeked of old money, and could easily be qualified as a mansion. It was meant to intimidate, he supposed, in a grand 'I'm better than you' kind of way. He'd always found that it reminded him of a person with lung cancer who didn't know about it yet. On the outside, it looked perfectly normal, beautiful and well cared for. On the inside, it was rotting and steadily eating away at itself. And every now and then, people like him were coughed up like black blood and spat onto the sidewalk.

He avoided the main house as much as he could. His missions were usually delivered to the barracks, and he was good at his job so it was rare that the boss ever complained. He'd never been ambitious, had no interest in the business part of what he did, and so had never sought to participate in the main house activities.

His was a simple existence. Sleep, eat, train, and occasionally do what he was told to do. He'd never wanted anything more from life.

His feet were heavy as he walked up the steps leading to the main door, solid, polished oak that swung silently and gracefully as he pulled it open.

He didn't bother wiping off his shoes or changing out of his uniform or even just into one that wasn't covered in blood. He didn't care to impress anyone, and the house impressed no sense of respect on him.

When he thought about it, nothing really did anymore.

The main entrance led to staircase and lazily, he wandered up. At the top of the stairs, the carpet led left, and ended at another closed door.

He didn't knock; he was expected.

The room was too big, too stylized, and too dark, like the rest of the house.

He sighed slightly as blood arched through the air, flying past the body that had been standing a few feet in front of him, and spattered the side of his masked face. He felt a few drops land, still warm, in his pale hair. Idly, he wondered if it would stain.

The body slumped to the floor, dark, thick blood pooling on the polished hardwood floor. But that wasn't what he was looking at. The fall of the body revealed the crouched form and glowing red eyes of the latest to be inaugurated to the rank of ANBU captain.

The boy stood frozen for a second, sword still extended, in the perfect finishing pose. He watched him intently, watched him hesitate between sheathing his blade and continuing his attack.

Finally, Uchiha Itachi straightened and pulled a cloth from the dark pocket of his uniform. Slowly, he wiped the blood staining his katana then sheathed it fluidly in the wooden casing strapped to his back. Sharingan remained locked to coal black.

"Hatake. You're late." The cold voice of their boss cut the tension between the two captains better than any weapon could have.

Kakashi dismissed the younger man and stepped around the body and the murderer, moving to stand in front of the boss.

Despite the straight lines and sharp angles, his face always managed to seem smooth and polished. It had taken Kakashi longer than usual to get used to how well his boss used his facial mobility, get used to expressions that looked like they were held in place by wires pulling at his skin. They still vaguely disturbed him but they no longer caught him by surprise.

His slow blink hadn't been caused by the boss's 'friendly' smirk or by the familiar greeting, but rather the little girl sitting in his lap. She was new.

He couldn't tell how old she was, she was small and dressed in lace and ribbons which made her seem young. But there was something in the way her skin had drained of color but her eyes remained steady as she stared at the dead man on the floor that made her seem old. Maybe the look had something to do with the way the boss's hand seemed to be just slightly lower on her hip than was appropriate, or in the way it dug into her slightly, forcing her closer to him.

He mentally shrugged it off. She was no concern of his.

He met the boss's eyes, daringly languorous. "Mm…" he agreed blandly.

A pale eyebrow arched on the older man's forehead. "Mm? That's all you have to say?" There was a dare in there, a challenge maybe.

Kakashi sighed mentally, noting how Itachi moved to stand at anticipatory attention behind the right shoulder of the boss's chair. He really didn't care for these games.

"Mm…Haruno-san," he amended.

Haruno laughed, suddenly and harshly. The little girl cringed, ever so slightly, her pink eyebrows drawing together nervously over sea foam green eyes. Uchiha didn't flinch.

Neither did he for that matter.

His shoulders slumped back into a slouch as he slid his hands deep into the pockets of his black uniform pants. Simply waiting.

"See darling," Haruno began, nuzzling the little girl's ear. "I told you he had a sense of humor."

The girl looked up at him apprehensively, studying him with eyes far older than they should have been. He arched a pale grey eyebrow under her scrutiny. Her eyes hesitated on his white vest and the paleness of his hair.

Blood stains.

She met his eyes for a second before her gaze scampered to the floor by Haruno's feet. She nodded slightly to the man's comment and his thumb ran lightly along her side, pleased.

She looked uncomfortable.

He remained silent; his boss would get to the point eventually, and the less he said the faster that would be. He wasn't in any real rush; it wasn't like he had anywhere to be or would have cared if he had, he simply…disliked being here. He would have far preferred his long walk back in the cold under the night sky.

"Hatake, do you know who this is?" His boss asked, jostling the little girl slightly to draw attention to her. She bit the inside of her lip, the skin at the corner of her mouth dipping in like a dimple where her teeth pulled.

"No, I do not, Haruno-san," he replied, following the proper formula blandly. He didn't care for formalities; they were trivial to him. But his boss insisted and bending was just so easy.

He was pleased, Kakashi could tell from the way his attention shifted slightly out of the malicious spectrum. Haruno's attention was focused almost fully on him, but he remained well aware of Itachi at his back. It was the child he ignored completely, treating her like an inanimate accessory rather than a living being. He shoved the girl out of his lap.

She stumbled but caught herself quickly, like she was used to it.

"This is my daughter, Sakura." He introduced her grandly, like she was an award he had won. The girl curtsied immaculately.

"Someday, all of this" he gestured grandly to imply the house and the lands "Will be hers."

Kakashi frowned mentally at Haruno's tone; something wasn't quite right in it. His outward expression remained one of extreme boredom, he simply watched from half-lidded eyes.

The mob boss's eyes settled on his own, smugness sparking in them.

"Someday, all of you will be hers." He continued, not so subtly reminding Kakashi of the bond he had walked into, the contract that had been tattooed in red ink on his left shoulder. The same contract every ANBU member signed.

He looked down at the girl; she was staring at him from beneath her eyelashes, trying not to get caught. He nodded to her, acknowledging her.

Color crept back into her skin, ever so slightly.

He turned his attention back to the men behind her.

"Your next mission starts now." Haruno told him, finally getting down to business. "You are to take Sakura to our apartment in the city and care for her for the week."

Kakashi didn't blink, didn't question or ask for explanation. He simply held his hand out to the girl. She hesitated, looking back to her father for his approval. He nodded slightly to her and she moved slowly, her small, trembling hand engulfed in his much larger and gloved hand.

Without a word, he turned and left, taking her with him.

………

………

Black spots swam behind her widened eyes as sharp pain shot through her body. She coughed violently, choking on the air that had been pushed out of her lungs. Blood splattered on the cold concrete floor of the warehouse.

Sasuke stared at her, waiting for her to recover rather than pressing his advantage.

That was the third solid hit he'd landed in the past half hour.

When she recovered enough to speak, Haruno called off training for the day.

………

His fists slammed with muted thumps into the punching bag, the reverberations of the collision echoing up his arm satisfactorily. Sweat slid down the side of his face, down the curve of his spine as faint pains shot through his muscles.

When they had started, he'd gotten this much of a work out training with Haruno. But he had outgrown her, with remarkable speed, and found himself needing to add to their routine once he was home again.

Sasuke had reached the extent of what he could learn from Haruno, he knew it and it frustrated him. Finding someone new to help him, who would quickly push his abilities to the level he needed, was a daunting but now necessary task. The only person he could even think to ask was their deceptively mellow English teacher, but instinct told him that that would be a dead end and a waste of time.

A final hit sent the bag swinging and he turned away for the day, picking up a towel to mop the sweat from his face and neck.

When he'd arrived here, Ino had told him that there were many organized crime groups in the city. All he had to do was find one strong enough that would be willing to bargain.

He threw the towel into the laundry hamper in the bathroom before his drenched clothing followed.

He'd already managed to hack a few criminal records without really knowing what he was looking for. He was sure that now that he had a better idea, he'd find someone soon enough.

He fiddled with the taps until he found a comfortable temperature and stepped beneath the spray, appreciating the pressure of the water against his skin.

………

The water pouring from her leaky kitchen sink was cold, the hot water tank having already been exhausted by the other residents of her apartment building. Haruno didn't care though, cold water was more appropriate anyway.

She filled a large glass, and then carefully filled the grooves in her plastic tray with varying amounts. Satisfied, she turned off the tap as tight as she could and carried the two containers to the table.

A large, thick sheet of Fabriano Artistico traditional white cold press paper had already been laid out, an extensive set of watercolor paint tubes and a case of soft bristled paint brushes with it. All supplies she'd pilfered from the art room earlier that day.

With a very hard pencil and a very light hand, she sketched the general outline of her work, basing it on the preliminary layouts and sketches she had strewn around the table.

Perusing her colors, she settled on a tube, dripping it into various grooves on her tray, mixing the consistency she wanted.

Finally, she picked up a large, clean brush, and dunked it into the glass of water before washing the surface of the paper as the steady drip from her kitchen faucet filled her ears.

………

Itachi stumbled, tripped on the first step leading up to her apartment. He'd used up his coordination for the day earlier on the commission he and Kisame had been sent on. His body wasn't used to going this long without rest.

The keys shook ever so slightly in his numb hands; his body heat had shut itself off. Once the door was open, he headed up to the third floor, the top floor. Turning to the only door on the right side of the hall, he unlocked it; he always had to unlock it.

She had her back to him, crouched over some work that was taking up the entirety of her kitchen table. Again.

He closed and locked the door behind him. She hadn't even looked up.

He shrugged off his dark coat, hanging it beside her red one by the door, before untying his katana from his belt. There was an odd clacking noise that made him grimace as the hilt hit the bare brick wall. It was an undignified sound, an unfamiliar sound no matter how often he heard it. It was just not the sound he was supposed to hear when he retired the extension of his arm for the day. He hated that sound.

She refused to put up a rack for it.

He moved around the table, collapsing into the chair opposite her. Her green eyes flicked up for a second, seeing him but not looking at him.

Her hands switched paintbrushes, switched colors and she set to work on a new level to her painting, looking up every now and then.

He was too tired to ask what she was working on; he was too tired to ask about anything. Steadily, his eyelids cemented themselves together, like someone had drawn a line in superglue along his bottom eyelid.

Haruno watched him as he fell asleep, each glance turning into a new layer in her painting.

She'd chosen watercolors for Itachi, building him in shifting, translucent layers.

She'd tell him in the morning. If he remembered to ask.

She hoped he didn't.

She wasn't sure what he was going to ask her to do once he knew Sasuke had outgrown her abilities.


End file.
